Chapter 14: Communicating Health Statistics Effectively: The Power of Icon Arrays and Natural Frequency Trees

Graphical representations can facilitate people’s understanding of mathematical content. This is crucial, for example, when health statistics are communicated to patients. In this chapter, we describe different graphical means and will, in particular, focus on icon arrays and natural frequency trees. Icon arrays are already understood by children and made their way into school curricula. They can be used to explain the pros and cons of different medical interventions as well as their risks and are increasingly used in the media — albeit not often enough. Natural frequency trees allow for transparent representations of the effectiveness of medical tests and interventions…