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Uncertainty and Ambiguity in Health Decisions

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Handbook of Health Decision Science

Abstract

Uncertainty is central to health decisions across the entire continuum of medical care—from disease prevention and screening, to disease treatment, to end-of-life care. For numerous decisions in all these domains, uncertainty is the omnipresent problem that makes decisions both possible and necessary. The current chapter provides an overview of important theoretical and empirical work on the effects of uncertainty in healthcare decisions. It first discusses the concept of uncertainty and provides a working definition to guide further analysis and discussion. It then reviews theory and evidence on the effects of one important type of uncertainty, known as “ambiguity” or “epistemic uncertainty,” on health decisions and patient well-being. The chapter puts forth the argument that ambiguity in healthcare decisions has important psychological effects that need to be better understood and accounted for, and suggests potentially fruitful directions for future research in this area.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Maine Medical Center, 39 Forest Avenue, Portland, ME, 04101, USA

    Paul K. J. Han

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  1. Paul K. J. Han
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Correspondence to Paul K. J. Han .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA

    Michael A. Diefenbach

  2. Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Suzanne Miller-Halegoua

  3. Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Deborah J. Bowen

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Han, P.K.J. (2016). Uncertainty and Ambiguity in Health Decisions. In: Diefenbach, M., Miller-Halegoua, S., Bowen, D. (eds) Handbook of Health Decision Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3486-7_10

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