Alarming remedies: A Comparative research regarding differences in perceived risk of medication side-effects among sexes

Background: Risk-perception emerges when the brain interprets and memorizes certain stimuli as dangerous for one’s body and life. Even in objectively safe situations people perceive risks and dangers. When it comes to medicine, risk-perception can withhold people from staying true to their medical treatment which is why it is important to pay attention to this phenomenon. The current studies about the perceived risks of medicine are mainly focused on male subjects which is why this study examined whether the perceived risk of medication differs among sexes. Methods: Literature research gave reason to hypothesize that females perceive higher risk of medication compared to males. To investigate this, this study made use of an online survey containing two standardized risk-perception scales. The survey was built around a fictional medication named Aratrine of which the side-effects were described, after which seven questions/statements were presented to the respondents aiming to...Show moreBackground: Risk-perception emerges when the brain interprets and memorizes certain stimuli as dangerous for one’s body and life. Even in objectively safe situations people perceive risks and dangers. When it comes to medicine, risk-perception can withhold people from staying true to their medical treatment which is why it is important to pay attention to this phenomenon. The current studies about the perceived risks of medicine are mainly focused on male subjects which is why this study examined whether the perceived risk of medication differs among sexes. Methods: Literature research gave reason to hypothesize that females perceive higher risk of medication compared to males. To investigate this, this study made use of an online survey containing two standardized risk-perception scales. The survey was built around a fictional medication named Aratrine of which the side-effects were described, after which seven questions/statements were presented to the respondents aiming to measure their perceived risk of Aratrine. The generated convenience sample eventually included 221 respondents (178 females 43 males). The data collected by the survey was integrated in a sum score which represented the overall perceived risk of Aratrine. The means of the female- and male sum scores were analyzed and compared with use of an independent sample t-test. Results & Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the overall sum risk-perception score did not differ among different sexes (t (2,219) = -.597, p = 0.551). This seems to imply that there is no difference in perceived risk of medication side-effect between males and females, which does not correspond with the expectation that raised from the literature review. This can be explained due to the validity and sample problems that occurred in this study. The post hoc analysis of the individual scale-items did show a significant difference among sexes for two items regarding the estimated risk of Aratrine (p<0.01) and the severity of potential bad consequences (p<0.01).Show less

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Alarming remedies: A Comparative research regarding differences in perceived risk of medication side-effects among sexes