Healthy Skepticism Library item: 19025
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
Wloshin S, Schwartz LM.
Numbers needed to decide.
Natl Cancer Inst 2009 August 11; 101:(17):1163-5
http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/101/17/1163.long
Abstract:
elling screening can be easy. Induce fear by exaggerating risk. Offer hope by exaggerating the benefit of screening. And don’t mention harms. It is especially easy with cancer—no diagnosis is more dreaded. And we all the know the mantra: early detection is the best protection. Doubt it, and someone may suggest you need your head examined.
“If you are a woman over 35, be sure to schedule a mammogram. Unless you’re still not convinced of its importance. In which case, you may need more than your breasts examined.” Old American Cancer Society Poster.
Messages selling screening are everywhere. The news regularly tells the story of celebrities asserting that their lives have been saved because of the early diagnosis of a cancer. It is very unusual to hear stories of those injured by overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Popular magazines report emotionally charged but wholly unrepresentative stories about young women with breast cancer and their fears of dying and leaving their young children (1). Medical centers use screening as a business strategy, offering free tests to attract patients (2). Public service announcements—like the American Cancer Society\‘s slogan above—speak for themselves. …
Keywords:
Anxiety/etiology*\nBreast Neoplasms/prevention & control*\nBreast Neoplasms/radiography\nDecision Making*\nEarly Detection of Cancer\nEurope\nFalse Positive Reactions\nFear*\nFemale\nHealth Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice*\nHumans\nMale\nMammography*\nProstate-Specific Antigen/blood*\nProstatic Neoplasms/diagnosis\nProstatic Neoplasms/immunology\nProstatic Neoplasms/prevention & control*\nTumor Markers, Biological/blood*\nUnnecessary Procedures/adverse effects
