Medical Deception?

Updated

Slate ran an interesting article last week about a health stat that you should know about, but probably don’t. EVERY AMERICAN should know about this health stat– but somewhere along the way medical companies made sure it was confusiong enough you didn’t. It doesn’t have to be confusing after all — but it was made to be.

What do you need to know? It’s called N-N-T. “Numbers Needed to Treat”. Just because a drug has a a 31% reduction in say heart attacks, doesn’t mean that 31 people out of a hundred face reduced odds if they took the drug.

That’s what you thought? Didn’t you? I certainly did. Simple math.

Not so quick.

The article says, ” What, after all, does a 31 percent relative reduction in heart attacks mean? In the case of the 1995 study, it meant that taking Pravachol every day for five years reduced the incidence of heart attacks from 7.5 percent to 5.3 percent.”

“Suppose that 100 people with high cholesterol levels took statins. Of them, 93 wouldn’t have had heart attacks anyway. Five people have heart attacks despite taking Pravachol. Only the remaining two out of the original 100 avoided a heart attack by taking the daily pills. In the end, 100 people needed to be treated to avoid two heart attacks during the study period –so, the number of people who must get the treatment for a single person to benefit is 50. This is known as the ‘number needed to treat.'” (Treat Me?The crucial health stat you’ve never heard of.By Darshak SanghaviPosted Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006)

So, a 31% reduction in heart attacks, means two people out of 100 were spared a heart attack. Did you know that is what this meant?

Next time, when you are taking a prescription drug, ask for the NNT, then look at the side effects.

Don’t miss this article. Read it here.

You decide: Is this practice deceptive? Or do you think it is necessary for 50 people to take a drug for the benefit of one?