Risk-related Information Research Articles

Factors impacting informed consent in cosmetic breast augmentation

BackgroundFor women who undergo cosmetic breast augmentation, their post-operative risk assessment may not match their pre-operative understanding of the involved risks and likelihood of revision surgeries. This may be due to the potential issues surrounding whether patients are being fully informed about all possible risks and related financial implications during the consent phases of patient/doctor consultation. MethodsTo explore comprehension, risk preference, and perceptions of breast augmentation procedure, we conducted a recorded online experiment with 178 women (18–40 years) who received varying amounts of risk-related information from two experienced breast surgeons in a hypothetical first consultation scenario. ResultsWe find patient's age, self-rated health, income, education level, and openness to experience to be significant factors impacting initial breast augmentation risk preferences (before receiving any risk information). Further, more emotionally stable patients perceived greater breast augmentation risks, were less likely to recommend breast augmentation, and were more likely to acknowledge the likelihood for future revision surgery. After providing women with risk-related information we find increases in risk assessment in all treatment conditions, and that increased amounts of risk information do decrease women's willingness to recommend breast augmentation. But that increased risk information does not appear to increase women's assessment of the likelihood of future revision surgery. Finally, we find some participant individual differences (such as education level, having children, conscientiousness and emotional stability) appear to impact risk assessment post receiving risk information. ConclusionContinuous improvement of the informed consent consultation process is vital to optimising patient outcomes efficiently and cost-effectively. Greater acknowledgement and emphasis on disclosure of related risks and financial burden when complications arise is also important. As such, future behavioural research is warranted into the factors impacting women's understanding both prior to and across the BA informed consent process.

Strategizing risk information sharing framework among supply chain partners for financial performance

ABSTRACT Organisations are often reluctant and sometimes postpone sharing risk-related information with their partners. This paper aims to develop and analyse the risk-sharing model to explain the factors contributing to the timely and accurate sharing of risk-related information within the supply chain network. The data are collected from 199 supply chain experts working in different manufacturing companies through a structured questionnaire and then analysed using structural equation modelling. The result of this study reflects that strategic supply chain relationship (SCR) has a significant impact on risk information sharing (RIS) and external information integration (EII) while having an insignificant impact on internal information integration (III). On the other hand, supply chain technology internalisation (SCT) significantly impacts EII, III and risk-sharing mechanism (RSM). This study is one of the few empirical studies conducted to understand the antecedents of risk-sharing mechanisms in any supply chain network to enhance visibility and increase financial performance using the relational and integrational approaches.

Effect of visual imagery in COVID-19 social media posts on users' perception.

People receive a wide variety of news from social media. They especially look for information on social media in times of crisis with the desire to assess the risk they face. This risk assessment, and other aspects of user reactions, may be affected by characteristics of the social media post relaying certain information. Thus, it is critical to understand these characteristics to deliver information with the reactions in mind. This study investigated various types of imagery used as thumbnails in social media posts regarding news about the COVID-19 pandemic. In an experimental design, 300 participants viewed social media posts containing each of the three types of imagery: data visualization (directly about risk information), advisory (not containing direct risk information, but instead help on how to lower risk), or clickbait (containing no risk-related information, just generic visuals). After observing the social media posts, they answered questionnaires measuring their emotions (valence, arousal, and dominance), risk perception, perceived credibility of the post, and engagement. The participants also indicated their emotions towards and interest in COVID-19 news coverage, age, gender, and how often and actively they use social media. These variables acted as controls. The data were analysed using mixed linear models. Results indicated that advisory imagery positively influenced valence, arousal, dominance, credibility, and (lower) risk perception. Alternatively, imagery showing data visualizations yielded low valence, arousal, dominance, credibility, and high risk perception. Clickbait-styled thumbnails which carry no information are usually measured between the other two types. The type of imagery did not affect the motivation to engage with a post. Aside from visual imagery, most variables were affected by COVID sentiment and the usual activity on social media. These study results indicate that one should use advisory imagery for more comfortable news delivery and data visualization when the poster wishes to warn users of existing risks.

When freedom of choice leads to bias: How threat fosters selective exposure to health information.

Selective exposure to online health information can be ascribed to two related defense motives: the motivation to confirm one’s subjective perceptions and the motivation to protect relevant parts of the self-image, such as physical integrity. Our aim was to identify how these motives come into effect in the context of a health threat (fictitious feedback on an alleged heart disease risk). In a preregistered online study with N = 763 participants, we analyzed the impact of perceived and suggested risk on the degree of bias in selecting risk-related information on a fictitious Google search results page. Applying a 2 × 2 design with the experimental factor “risk feedback” and the quasi-experimental factor “perceived risk,” we formulated six hypotheses. First, we expected a main effect of perceived risk on selective exposure to information suggesting no risk, and second, we hypothesized a main effect of perceived risk on mean quality rating of information suggesting a risk. Third, we proposed a main effect of risk feedback on selective exposure to information which suggests no risk, and fourth, we proposed a main effect of risk feedback on mean quality rating of information suggesting a risk. Fifth, we expected an interaction effect between perceived and suggested risk, and sixth, we proposed an interaction effect between perceived and suggested risk in different forms for each of the four conditions on quality ratings. Only the third hypothesis was confirmed: Receiving information which suggested a health risk increased the tendency to select information denying the risk. Additional exploratory analyses revealed moderator effects of health information literacy and participant age on the aforementioned relationships. In sum, our results underline the crucial role of defense motives in the context of a suggested health threat.

Eavesdropping on conspecific alarm calls links birds across territory borders into a population-wide information network

Animal communication, including the transmission of risk-related information, has long been recognized as occurring in a network, rather than being limited to signaller–receiver dyadic interactions. However, it is rare for studies on communication to explicitly incorporate a network approach and for network studies to focus on communication interactions and information transmission in nongrouping species. Consequently, the properties of communication networks and the extent to which risk-related information can spread through populations of territorial animals remain largely unexplored. Here, I examined the structure and spatial extent of eavesdropping networks by studying alarm calls in wood warblers, Phylloscopus sibilatrix, small, territorial songbirds inhabiting temperate European forests. Using a playback experiment, I first established the active space of wood warblers' alarm signals, that is, how the strength of antipredator responses to conspecific alarm calls varies as a function of distance between signallers and receivers. Next, I combined social network analysis and fine-scale, long-term data on wood warblers' territory distribution to delineate spatially explicit alarm call eavesdropping networks and to explore the potential for risk-related information transmission at the population level. Response strength of wood warblers to conspecific calls decreased with increasing distance to callers, suggesting distance-dependent eavesdropping. However, each year the majority of individuals occupied territories within the active space of alarm signals of multiple neighbours and could reach information from even more of them via indirect links. Moreover, the patterns of connections between individuals were generally similar across years, suggesting that basic network properties remain stable over time. This study shows that during the spring breeding season, individual birds are interlinked with conspecifics across territory borders into population-wide information webs, in which risk-related information can readily spread across large spatial scales. In turn, this highlights the social environment as an important dimension of individuals’ niches even in otherwise territorial animals.

Analysis of Risk Assessment of Overseas Infrastructure Projects Integrating BP-ANN Algorithm

In order to improve the risk assessment effect of infrastructure projects, this paper combines the BP-ANN algorithm to conduct risk assessment and analysis of overseas infrastructure projects to avoid the problem of slow learning and speed up network learning. Moreover, this paper normalizes the input value, and redefines the concept of risk on the basis of previous research. In addition, this paper sets up to record the basic information and risk-related information of the project. In order to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm, this paper predicts the training data, test data, and verification data, respectively, to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm, and collects existing overseas infrastructure project cases as samples to perform the simulation experiments. The experimental study shows that the risk assessment model of overseas infrastructure projects that integrates the BP-ANN algorithm proposed in this paper has a good risk analysis effect.

What is Your Reference Point? (WITHDRAWN)

The availability of information and framing effects play an essential role in research on reference points and prospect theory. Our study extends this research by introducing price volatility as an essential determinant of reference points and by expanding prospect theory by taking contingency effects at the organizational level into account. At the example of the family business context, we discuss how the organizational context determines how risk-related information such as price volatility, purchase price, current price, and average price affect the level of reference points. The findings of our experimental study suggest that price volatility has a direct effect on reference points while the family business context serves as a special decision frame.

A structural description of the evolution of stakeholders and risk communication in the Department of Energy's defense nuclear facilities: Historical perspective, major stakeholders, and external events.

Regulators and policymakers are routinely challenged with explaining complex concepts concerning risk. Part of the challenge is helping external and internal stakeholders to understand the context behind risk-related information and decisions. This paper will describe the historical evolution of the safety and regulatory framework for an important category in the nuclear industry-defense nuclear facilities owned and operated by the US Department of Energy. In parallel with describing this evolution, three major events which occurred external to the complex of defense nuclear facilities will be summarized, and their impact on the maturation of the Department's safety and regulatory framework will be discussed. Finally, integrated with these two threads of discussion will be a chronicle of the changing set of involved organizations and the expanding set of external stakeholders involved in risk decisions-and therefore, the risk communications ecosystem surrounding defense nuclear facilities. It will be noted that this system was once describable as a classic "iron triangle," but now has progressed to a complex network of federal and state organizations, numerous congressional committees, and expanding sets of external stakeholders. It is hoped that a comprehensive discussion of the context of risk assessment in the defense nuclear facilities complex-addressing historical insights, organizational evolution, and the maturing structure of regulation-will provide enhanced opportunities for building trust and understanding in this complex environment.

Neural correlates of risky decision making in Parkinson's disease patients with impulse control disorders.

Some patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience impulse control disorders (ICDs), characterized by deficient voluntary control over impulses, drives, or temptations regarding excessive hedonic behavior. The present study aimed to better understand the neural basis of impulsive, risky decision making in PD patients with ICDs by disentangling potential dysfunctions in decision and outcome mechanisms. We collected fMRI data from 20 patients with ICDs and 28 without ICDs performing an information gathering task. Patients viewed sequences of bead colors drawn from hidden urns and were instructed to infer the majority bead color in each urn. With each new bead, they could choose to either seek more evidence by drawing another bead (draw choice) or make an urn-inference (urn choice followed by feedback). We manipulated risk via the probability of bead color splits (80/20 vs. 60/40) and potential loss following an incorrect inference ($10 vs. $0). Patients also completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) to assess impulsivity. Patients with ICDs showed greater urn choice-specific activation in the right middle frontal gyrus, overlapping the dorsal premotor cortex. Across all patients, fewer draw choices (i.e., more impulsivity) were associated with greater activation during both decision making and outcome processing in a variety of frontal and parietal areas, cerebellum, and bilateral striatum. Our findings demonstrate that ICDs in PD are associated with differences in neural processing of risk-related information and outcomes, implicating both reward and sensorimotor dopaminergic pathways.

Latent Linguistic Motifs in Social Media Postings Resisting COVID-19 Misinformation.

Social media has become a predominant source of information for many health care consumers. However, false and misleading information is a pervasive problem in this context. Specifically, health-related misinformation has become a significant public health challenge, impeding the effectiveness of public health awareness campaigns and resulting in suboptimal responsiveness to the communication of legitimate risk-related information. Little is known about the mechanisms driving the seeding and spreading of such information. In this paper, we specifically examine COVID-19 tweets which attempt to correct misinformation. We employ a mixed-methods approach comprising qualitative coding, deep learning classification, and computerized text analysis to understand the manifestation of speech acts and other linguistic variables. Results indicate significant differences in linguistic variables (e.g., positive emotion, tone, authenticity) of corrective tweets and their dissemination level. Our deep learning classifier has a macro average performance of 0.82. Implications for effective and persuasive misinformation correction efforts are discussed.

Regulation of sex differences in risk-based decision making by gonadal hormones: Insights from rodent models

Men and women differ in their ability to evaluate options that vary in their rewards and the risks that are associated with these outcomes. Most studies have shown that women are more risk averse than men and that gonadal hormones significantly contribute to this sex difference. Gonadal hormones can influence risk-based decision making (i.e., risk taking) by modulating the neurobiological substrates underlying this cognitive process. Indeed, estradiol, progesterone and testosterone modulate activity in the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and nucleus accumbens associated with reward and risk-related information. The use of animal models of decision making has advanced our understanding of the intersection between the behavioral, neural and hormonal mechanisms underlying sex differences in risk taking. This review will outline the current state of this literature, identify the current gaps in knowledge and suggest the neurobiological mechanisms by which hormones regulate risky decision making. Collectively, this knowledge can be used to understand the potential consequences of significant hormonal changes, whether endogenously or exogenously induced, on risk-based decision making as well as the neuroendocrinological basis of neuropsychiatric diseases that are characterized by impaired risk taking, such as substance use disorder and schizophrenia.

Affective Distancing Associated with Second Language Use Influences Response to Health Information

Health care delivery depends on effective provider–patient communication. An important issue is whether and how this communication differs for second language (SL) patients. While understanding health information can be impaired by limited English proficiency, we examined a potential benefit of SL use. SL users may be “affectively distanced”, with weaker emotional reactions to content presented in a foreign versus native language (NL). This distancing may have important implications for understanding, and for making decisions and judgements about health information to the extent these processes involve affective responses. For example, patients may respond to diagnostic test results indicating risk of illness with less intense negative affect if the information is presented in their SL. Language differences in affective response may in turn attenuate risk perception for SL versus NL users, with perceived risk being lower while the objective risk associated with test results increases, as predicted by the ‘risk as feelings’ view of risk perception, where perceived risk is based on affective response to the information. On the other hand, risk perception may be more calibrated with objective risk for SL users to the extent that affective distancing encourages SL users to rely on deliberative rather than affective-based, intuitive processes related to risk perception. SL use may also influence attitudes toward and intentions to perform behaviors that address risk because these processes are driven in part by risk perception and memory for the risk information. These processes may also depend on numeracy, defined as the ability to make sense of and rationalize numbers, because it influences risk perception. We tested these predictions in the context of a simulated Electronic Health Record (EHR) patient portal, in which participants were presented diagnostic test results in English from fictional patients. Native English speakers (n = 25), and native Mandarin speakers with higher numeracy (n = 25) and lower numeracy (n = 28) participated in the study. Consistent with the ‘affective distancing’ effect, SL participants with either higher or lower numeracy demonstrated a flatter slope for positive and negative affective responses to the test results compared to NL participants. Moreover, SL participants reported greater perceived risk than NL participants did as objective risk rose. A similar pattern occurred for attitudes toward and intentions to perform behaviors that addressed this risk, especially for treatment health behaviors. On the other hand, language did not influence memory for risk-related information. Our findings extend the affective distancing effect associated with SL use to the health domain and show that this effect influences risk perception and behavioral intentions beyond memory recall and numeracy skills.

The Consent Process for Elective Hip and Knee Arthroplasty: Does Information on Handwritten Forms Meet Prescribed Standards?

IntroductionThe process of informed consent is vital, not only to good clinical practice and patient care, but also to avoid negligence and malpractice claims. Elective hip and knee arthroplasty numbers are increasing globally, and the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) has endorsed standards for obtaining written consent for these procedures. Many centres in the United Kingdom and globally, use handwritten consent forms to document informed consent, leaving open the potential for missing out important procedure and risk-related information. Our study aimed to assess whether information on handwritten consent forms was compliant with BOA standards for elective arthroplasty of the hip and knee.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed 70 handwritten consent forms, across theatre lists of 12 arthroplasty consultants at our elective arthroplasty centre. These included 35 forms each for hip and knee arthroplasty respectively. We compared the information on these forms to the standards prescribed by the BOA. We assessed compliance of the forms with common, less common and rare risks of hip and knee replacement, as described by the BOA. We also noted the designation of the person filling out the form (consultant, registrar or nurse practitioner) and whether this affected information on the form. We assessed the forms for legibility issues, and whether the setting (clinic/pre-operative ward) affected information on the form.ResultsNone of the 70 forms reviewed achieved full compliance with BOA standards. When assessed for common risks of hip and knee arthroplasty, the number of compliant forms was 25.7% and 42.8%, respectively. None of the forms mentioned all rare risks of either hip or knee arthroplasty. We identified legibility issues in 12 of 70 (17.1%) forms. There was no significant difference in information written on forms filled out by consultants, registrars or nurse practitioners, or between forms filled out in the clinic versus those on the pre-operative ward.ConclusionHandwritten forms lack compliance with prescribed standards for written informed consent in elective hip and knee arthroplasty. Ideally, a pre-written consent form should be used, but with the option of adding information individually tailored to the patients’ background. This ensures that good clinical practice is optimally followed, and reduces the potential risk of any litigation.

Corporate risk disclosure and key audit matters: the egocentric theory

PurposeThis paper aims to provide unique interdisciplinary research evidence between the risk information disclosed by auditors and the risk information disclosed by corporate managers. In particular, it investigates the association between the level of risk information disclosed by auditors (key audit matters [KAMs]) and the level of corporate narrative risk disclosure.Design/methodology/approachThe study sample consists of the UK FTSE all-share non-financial firms across six financial years. The authors use a computer-aided textual analysis, and the authors use a bag of words to score the sample annual reports.FindingsThe results suggest that KAMs and corporate narrative risk disclosure levels vary across the industries. The authors found a significant positive association between the risk information disclosed by auditors and the risk information disclosed by corporate managers. Also, the authors found that FTSE 100 firms exhibit higher significance between the ongoing concern and the level of narrative risk disclosure.Practical implicationsThe study approach helps assess the level of management risk reporting behaviour due to the new auditor risk reporting standards. This helps to emphasise how auditors and companies engage and communicate risk-related information to stakeholders. Standard setters should suggest a more detailed reporting framework to protect the shareholders. The unique findings are incredibly beneficial to the regulators, standard setters, investors, creditors, suppliers, customers, decision makers and academics.Originality/valueThis paper provides a shred of extraordinary evidence of the impact of auditor risk reporting and management risk reporting. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has yet investigated the corporate narrative disclosure after the new audit standards ISA 700 and ISA 701.

Risk perception, affect, and information avoidance during the 2016 U.S. Presidential election

During a presidential election cycle, voters consume information to alleviate uncertainty about the candidates and the process. As a result, elections offer an interesting (and somewhat novel) context for studying risk-related information behaviors. Here we argue that individuals avoid certain information, depending on the amount of risk they perceive and to what extent they experience risk-related affect. Based on national survey data collected one month prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election (N = 512), we found that risk perception influenced information avoidance through affective responses to the different types of risks. Specifically, financial and political risk influenced avoidance through negative affective response to risk, while policy risk influenced avoidance through both positive and negative affective response. Thus, the mediation of affective responses varies by the type of perceived risks.

Corporate Governance and Risk Disclosure in Emerging Countries

The study examines the influence of corporate governance attributes on the corporate risk disclosure in the emerging countries. Board size, non-executive directors, independent directors, board diversity and CEO-duality are the important board of director’s composition that is considered as corporate governance variables for this study. The study focuses on South Africa and Nigeria as these countries are among major players in the African emerging market. The sample comprises 42 financial and non-financial firms listed in Nigerian Stock Exchange and Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The data was drawn from 192 annual reports for the year 2014–2018. The analytical tools employed are manual content analysis and regression. The empirical results show that operational risk disclosure outweighs environmental and strategic risk disclosure. Meanwhile, past information, non-monetary and good news are considered less relevant, however dominatefuture, monetary and bad news which are more valuable to diverse stakeholders. Moreover, in considering the important factors that impact on the risk confession, that board size, independent director and diversity have greater influence in driving the risk disclosure upward. Nevertheless, non-executive director and CEO-Duality are statistically insignificant in determining the movement of risk information to divulge. The persistence of contemporary corporate risk practice jampacked with irrelevant information might promote greater agency cost. The implication for the current practice might increase investors’ uncertainty which in turn would raise the company cost of capital. This issue could be addressed by regulating risk disclosure in emerging countries instead of allowing corporate managers to report risk related information at their discretion. Corporate manager are also encourage to appreciate all the potential risk disclosure drivers in the African emerging countries.

Examining Insensitivity to Probability in Evidence-Based Communication of Relative Risks: The Role of Affect and Communication Format.

Affect can influence judgments of event riskiness and use of risk-related information. Two studies (Ns: 85 and 100) examined the insensitivity-to-probability effect-where people discount probability information when scenarios are affect-rich-applying it to evidence-informed risk communication. We additionally investigated whether this effect is moderated by format, based on predictions from the evaluability and pattern-recognition literatures, suggesting that graphical formats may attenuate insensitivity to probability. Participants completed a prior beliefs questionnaire (Study 1), and risk perception booklet (both studies) that presented identical statistical information about the relative risks associated with two scenarios-one with an affect-rich outcome, the other an affect-poorer outcome. In Study 1, this was presented graphically. In Study 2, information was presented in one of three formats: written, tabular, or graphical. Participants provided their perceptions of the risk for each scenario at a range of risk-levels. The affect-rich scenario was perceived as higher in risk, and, importantly, despite presenting identical relative risk information in both scenarios, was associated with a reduced sensitivity to probability information (both studies). These differences were predicted by participants' prior beliefs concerning the scenario events (Study 1) and were larger for the single-item written format than graphical format (Study 2). The findings illustrate that insensitivity to probability information can occur in evidence-informed risk communications and highlight how communication format can moderate this effect. This interplay between affect and format therefore reflects an important consideration for information designers and researchers.

Dose quantities for measurement and comparison of doses to individual patients in computed tomography (CT)

The dose quantities displayed routinely on CT scanners, the volume averaged CT dose index (CTDIvol) and dose length product, provide measures of doses calculated for standard phantoms. The American Association of Medical Physics has published conversion factors for the adjustment of CTDIvol to take account of variations in patient size, the results being termed size-specific dose estimate (SSDE). However, CTDIvol and SSDE, while useful in comparing and optimising doses from a set procedure, do not provide risk-related information that takes account of the organs and tissues irradiated and associated cancer risks. A derivative of effective dose that takes account of differences in body and organ sizes and masses, referred to here as size-specific effective dose (SED), can provide such information. Data on organ doses from NCICT software that is based on Monte Carlo simulations of CT scans for 193 adult phantoms have been used to compute values of SED for CT examinations of the trunk and results compared with corresponding values of SSDE. Relationships within ±8% were observed between SED and SSDE for scans extending over similar regions for phantoms with a wide range of sizes. Coefficients have been derived from fits of the data to estimate SED values from SSDEs for different regions of the body for scans of standard lengths based on patient height. A method developed to take account of differences in scan length gave SED results within ±5% of values calculated using the NCI phantom library. This approach could potentially be used to estimate SED from SSDE values, allowing their display at the time a CT scan is performed.

Non-Pressurized Topical Spray Pharmaceutical-Methodology of Formulation Development and Quality Control Management

The medicine was given to the target site with a pressurized topical spray (aerosol pharmaceutical) and a non-pressurized topical spray solution by gently pressing the spray container against the skin and initiating the spray. Formulation components consists of product concentrate (one or more pharmaceutical drugs with relevant excipient) and packaging components (valves, pump, actuator, container). After formulation process development various quality control test like spray pattern, spray content uniformity and geometry, particulate matter, droplet size distribution, microbial limit, net content, pH, osmolarity, weight loss, leachability, viscosity, valves, actuators, diptubes, weight checking, leak test, valve discharge rate, dosage with valves, therapeutic activity, and toxicity studies to check the quality and efficacy. The benefit of Topical Spray Life Cycle Management (post-approval adjustments, 30-day supplements, annual report, Food and Drug Administration inspection and enforcement, cover letter, risk management standard and related information from the International Organization for Standardization) is that it covers the entire lifecycle of a topical spray, from conception through formulation design development to marketing. The product lifecycle management data offers regulatory bodies with a significant financial benefit. Topical non-pressurized sprays have been developed for a variety of applications due to their ease of use, environmental friendliness, low cost, and innovative technology. This review give details about meter dose topical spray of Estradiol, 1% tolnaftate, 2% Miconazole nitrate spray, 0.5% w/w Voriconazole spray, Clotrimazole transdermal apray, Lopinavir meter dose transdermal spray are studied by researcher. This review also enlisted patents and marketed formulation on topical spray from year 2007 to 2020.

The ticking time-bomb. Health literacy in the context of genetic risk prediction in familial breast-ovarian cancer; A qualitative study.

Personalised methods of predicting breast and ovarian cancer risk through genetic testing increasingly demand a person's understanding and critical appraisal of risk-related information, as well as decision-making and acting upon disclosure of a positive test result. The current study aims at understanding health literacy (HL) among persons at risk of developing familial breast-ovarian cancer (FBOC) from a bottom-up perspective-incorporating their viewpoints into the research process. Its qualitative design integrates an ethnographic-narrative approach and findings from 10 narrative interviews with women who have undergone genetic testing, analysed by using reflexive grounded theory. The collected data reveal the entanglement of the women's perceptions concerning the risk of getting ill, their identity, and their strategies of managing health. The analysis of this interplay provides an empirical basis for approaching HL in its communicative dimension, considering individuals' understandings of health and illness, and emphasizing the role of critical HL.