|
Prescription charges
Community pharmacy
Medical research
Remuneration
Advertising
Primary care
Fluoridation
The Society
Letters to the Editor
|
Medical research
Creating worry rather than informing patients
From Mr I. L. Marsha, MRPharmS
Health care professionals are often asked by patients, or members of
the public in general, to interpret news of medical research — commonly
new treatments or fresh findings on known diseases — that they
have heard about through television, the radio, newspapers, the internet,
or friends and family.
Research is often a highly competitive focus on a particular type of
patient; this may well lead to difficulties for health care professionals
in explaining seemingly antagonistic news releases to an increasingly
confused lay community.
It is right that the results of research on health matters are disseminated
as soon as possible, but announcements should be made in a measured and
sensitive way, so as not to cause undue concern. However, time and time
again this fails to happen in medicine as well as in politics.
Taking one particular example, various articles in the press recently — both
tabloid and broadsheet — reported on research into associations
between diet and breast cancer. These were based on a survey designed
by Cancer Research UK. The press release for this was entitled, “Women
loath to give up the good life to reduce breast cancer risk”. It
discussed the attitude of women towards issues of alcohol, obesity and
hormone replacement therapy when considering the risk of developing the
disease. The Daily Telegraph stated, in a short article on the release: “Studies
have shown that women who drank a glass of wine each day were six per
cent more likely than non-drinkers to develop breast cancer by the age
of 80”. Apart from asking how much significance this has to women
in general, we are reminded of seemingly contradictory findings.
As reported in The Pharmaceutical Journal of 7 September 2002 (p310),
researchers at Barcelona’s Cardiovascular Research Centre concluded
in their study that “a moderate consumption of red wine induces
an inhibitory effect on thrombosis, triggered by damaged vessel walls.
Therefore, consumption of two glasses a day of red wine could be considered
as a protective factor for cardiovascular risk.” This benefit of
alcohol had again been widely reported in the press.
Did the newspaper item cited above on the Cancer Research UK’s
press release represent proportionate reporting? The level of exposure
of the mammary tissue to oestrogen throughout a woman’s lifetime
is a factor in breast cancer development; women are therefore entitled
to feel, for example, that if they are being treated with HRT they should
take advice and, depending on personal circumstances, review this treatment.
A combination of moderate exercise with a balanced diet is an aspect
of lifestyle which may in general reduce the risk of developing breast
cancer, by helping to moderate the body’s quantity of oestrogen-producing
adipose tissue. What of the consumption of regular but small amounts
of alcohol, though?
If indeed harmful in this scenario, it may be pertinent to ask if women
working in aseptic production units, being continuously exposed to industrial
methylated spirit and the like, are at significant risk.
The deliberations of the Hutton Inquiry provide a salutary lesson for
everyone involved in the reporting of medical issues. “Single source
intelligence”, properly verified, has its place; however, experience
has shown that when this is given undue prominence, it may be open to
misinterpretation. The results of research reported in the press are
frequently handled indelicately. In the search for sound bites, material
may be accused of being “sexed up”, not informing but merely
creating worry among the general population.
Ian Marsha
Aseptic Services Pharmacist and Teacher-Practitioner
Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology,
University of Bath
|
* PDF files on PJ Online require Acrobat
Reader 4 or later.