Public Health Decision Making and Risk Perception

This chapter provides an introduction aimed at making the field of decision science more accessible. Because so many chronic diseases are preventable or manageable through behavioral changes, decision science could provide a valuable resource for understanding and improving health decisions and the outcomes that follow them. With its combination of empirical and analytical methods, decision science provides broadly applicable approaches to help people make health decisions in ways that are informed by both medical and social science. It is especially helpful for decisions made in the face of uncertainty whether individuals make them on their own or in consultation with health care providers.