Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16760

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Mayor S
Report calls for public education on screening to ensure more realistic expectations
BMJ 2009 11 03; 339:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/339/nov03_1/b4533?rss=1

Abstract:

The public needs to be better informed about the purpose, benefits, and potential harms of screening programmes to overcome unrealistic expectations about what they can achieve, warns a report from UK clinicians and scientists.

The report, Making Sense of Screening, was developed in response to recent media coverage of celebrities who developed cancer, which has made screening a particularly emotive matter.

The treatment of the pop singer Kylie Minogue for breast cancer and the death from cervical cancer at the age of 27 of reality television star Jade Goody led to demands, and promises from politicians, that more people be included in screening programmes and that screening be offered more often, starting at a younger age and continuing for longer.

The authors of the report from Sense About Science, a UK charity that aims to improve public understanding of science, consulted with screening specialists, specialists in public health, and . . .