Educating health consumers about cardio-metabolic health risk: What can we learn from lay mental models of risk?

ObjectiveTo study lay conceptions of cardio-metabolic risk and compare them with those of experts, in order to formulate focal points for better educational risk information.Methods40 Dutch lay people were interviewed about the risks of developing cardio-metabolic diseases. Following a 'mental models approach', their conceptions were qualitatively analyzed and compared to an expert model.ResultsWe identified four key themes representing lay conceptions: (1) “same factors, different value” (e.g. the dominance of certain factors, such as stress); (2) “superficiality and incoherence” (e.g. a focus on health and illness in general); (3) “misjudged elevated risk concept” (e.g. either being sick or not); and (4) “no concept of a link between cardio-metabolic diseases” (e.g. separate links between causes and diseases).ConclusionPotential mismatches between lay and expert conceptions do not seem to indicate a lack of basic knowledge among consumers, but rather that certain risk factors are not effectively translated into a coherent risk picture.Practice implicationsIn improving educational materials, we could more explicitly take into account factors that lay people find important. Additionally, effort should be made to produce a more coherent risk understanding among consumers, for example through an alternative information structure.