|
This is really about how companies with a product to promote present their data, right? They do it in the same way all businesses and most governments do these days - they put a positive spin on things.
Figures can always be manipulated in order to show what you want them to show, while still technically being honest. Newspapers don't sell with headlines like "No School Killings Today".
Statins do work. They lower cholesterol and there is a high correlation between high cholesterol and heart attacks. In this country GPs consult a risk criteria before prescribing statins, because they are an expensive drug. But the bottom line is the saving to the NHS of preventing even one heart attack (even in purely financial terms) is worth the cost of prescribing.
Almost everyone I know takes vitamin tablets. The proportion of people who this actually benefits is extremely low. Why do they take them? Well for the sake of a couple of quid they think it's worth the small potential that they might need them.
People do all sorts of things "just in case" including taking medicine, cutting food groups out of their diet, buying insurance, using contraception etc etc etc
Patients should be aware of the NNT. But my guess is they'd want the drugs anyway, in the same way they want to be insured against a meteorite hitting their car. Because what if....?
__________________
Life's hard you know, so strike a pose on a Cadillac
|