Publications (23) View all
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Article: Advancing collaborative research with 2-1-1 to reduce health disparities: Challenges, opportunities, and recommendations
American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 12/2012; 43:S518-S528. -
Article: Effects of Self-Affirmation on Implementation Intentions and the Moderating Role of Affect
Social Psychological and Personality Science. 05/2012; 3(3):300-307. -
Article: Physicians’ attitudes about communicating and managing scientific uncertainty differ by perceived ambiguity aversion of their patients
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ABSTRACT: Background Medical interventions are often characterized by substantial scientific uncertainty regarding their benefits and harms. Physicians must communicate to their patients as part of the process of shared decision making, yet they may not always communicate scientific uncertainty for several reasons. One suggested by past research is individual differences in physicians’ tolerance of uncertainty. Relatedly, an unexplored explanation is physicians’ beliefs about their patients’ tolerance of uncertainty.Design To test this possibility, we surveyed a sample of primary care physicians (N = 1500) and examined the association between their attitudes about communicating and managing scientific uncertainty and their perceptions of negative reactions to uncertainty by their patients. Physician perceptions were measured by their propensity towards pessimistic appraisals of risk information and avoidance of decision making when risk information is ambiguous – of uncertain reliability, credibility or adequacy, known as ‘ambiguity aversion’.Results Confirming past studies, physician demographics (e.g. medical specialty) predicted attitudes toward communicating scientific uncertainty. Additionally, physicians’ beliefs about their patients’ ambiguity aversion significantly predicted these preferences. Physicians who thought that more of their patients would have negative reactions to ambiguous information were more likely to think that they should decide what is best for their patients (β = 0.065, P = 0.013), and to withhold an intervention that had uncertainty associated with it (β = 0.170, P < 0.001).Discussion When faced with the task of communicating scientific uncertainty about medical tests and treatments, physicians’ perce-ptions of their patients’ ambiguity aversion may be related to their attitudes towards communicating uncertainty.Health expectations: an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy 08/2011; · 1.80 Impact Factor -
Article: A daily process investigation of alcohol-involved sexual risk behavior among economically disadvantaged problem drinkers living with HIV/AIDS.
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ABSTRACT: Alcohol use is believed to increase sexual risk behavior among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). As drinking and sexual risk acts often occur in the same social contexts, this association is difficult to confirm. In this study, electronic daily diaries were completed by 116 PLWHA over 5 weeks. This yielded a total of 1,464 records consisting of data pertaining to discrete occasions of anal and vaginal sex. Simultaneous within- and between-person multilevel analyses were conducted, including situational variables (partner type, partner serostatus, partner drinking) and individual difference variables (gender, level of alcohol dependence). The resulting model explains 27.5% of the variance and reveals that interactions among these situational and individual difference variables predict changes in the estimated rate of unprotected sex (US). Also, in defined contexts, the amount of alcohol consumed prior to sex significantly affects the rate of US among members of the sample. Implications are discussed.AIDS and Behavior 01/2008; 12(5):729-40. · 3.49 Impact Factor -
Dataset: Ferrer et al 2013 Risk Worry JHC
