Getting risk right : understanding the science of elusive health risks / Geoffrey C. Kabat.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Do cell phones cause brain cancer? Does BPA threaten our health? How safe are certain dietary supplements, especially those containing exotic herbs or small amounts of toxic substances? Is the HPV vaccine safe? We depend on science and medicine as never before, yet there is widespread misinformation and confusion, amplified by the media, regarding what influences our health. In Getting Risk Right , Geoffrey C. Kabat shows how science works--and sometimes doesn't--and what separates these two very different outcomes.

Kabat seeks to help us distinguish between claims that are supported by solid science and those that are the result of poorly designed or misinterpreted studies. By exploring different examples, he explains why certain risks are worth worrying about, while others are not. He emphasizes the variable quality of research in contested areas of health risks, as well as the professional, political, and methodological factors that can distort the research process. Drawing on recent systematic critiques of biomedical research and on insights from behavioral psychology, Getting Risk Right examines factors both internal and external to the science that can influence what results get attention and how questionable results can be used to support a particular narrative concerning an alleged public health threat. In this book, Kabat provides a much-needed antidote to what has been called "an epidemic of false claims."

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

We are bombarded by news stories in the papers, on TV, and online about the newest health scares and medical breakthroughs. Can we really believe them? Is the science credible, the reporting accurate? Kabat (cancer epidemiology, Albert Einstein Coll. of Medicine) offers a concise, helpful course in understanding public health information. By explaining the research and how scientists may be influenced by their own biases, the author demonstrates what determines solid or shoddy science. He discusses poorly designed experiments that do not take all of the variables into account or deal with small samples. The author also looks at the tendency to focus on negative findings, which generate fear (cell phones causing cancer; vaccines and autism) even though the data doesn't support the results. In contrast, he highlights studies that demonstrate genuine health risks (toxic dietary supplements, HPV, and cervical cancer) and describes their relevance. VERDICT An important study that teaches how to decipher science and medical news, this title belongs in all collections.-Barbara Bibel, formerly Oakland P.L. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Kabat, a cancer epidemiologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, has penned an invaluable new book that deploys science to distinguish health risks that merit concern from those that do not. By addressing relationships between media hype and reliable scientific study, Kabat illuminates an immediately usable perspective on current health risks. This book interrogates what has been referred to as "an epidemic of false claims" in the construction of accounts pertaining to alleged threats to public health. The author achieves this examination through the lens of biomedical research and behavioral psychology. Kabat's discussion is incisive and straightforward, making his informative treatise an invaluable contribution to health literacy, and a useful resource for clinicians and patients. Through chapters on the role of social media and perceived health risks, "negative thinking" and attribution bias, and consensus-making amidst contested science, the text achieves one of the most coherent analyses of health literacy and assessment today. The book is useful for any individual teaching or practicing in the health sciences, as well as individuals in education and public health. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; faculty and professionals. --Luther Hill Taylor, Oregon Health & Science University