Value of Prostate Cancer Screening Questioned by Two Studies
Posted on March 24, 2009 Comments (2)
Ben Goldacre, in his bad science blog, again takes on journalist’s articles of health research in: Venal, misleading, pathetic, dangerous, stupid, and busted
For complex risk decisions like screening, it has been shown in three separate studies that patients, doctors, and NHS purchasing panels make more rational decisions about treatments and screening programmes when they are given the figures as real numbers, as I did above, instead of percentages. I’m not saying that PSA screening is either good or bad: I am saying that people deserve the figures in the clearest form possible so they can make their own mind up.
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So newspapers ignore one half of the evidence, and they fail to explain the other half properly.
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They can also link directly and transparently to scientific papers, which mainstream media still refuses to do. Journalists insist that we need professionals to mediate and explain science. From today’s story, their self belief seems truly laughable.
He also says some journalists got it right including the Washington Post in, Prostate Cancer Screening May Not Reduce Deaths:
I think it is true that most people need help having science mediated to some extent. But he is also right that those doing so need to do better. And also everyone needs to learn about science to understand the choices they personally and politically (for policy issues) need to make decisions on. Being scientifically illiterate is dangerous.
Related: Science Journalism – Poor Reporting and Unfounded Implications – Study Finds No Measurable Benefit to Flu Shots – How Prozac Sent Science Inquiry Off Track
Categories: Health Care, Research, Science, Students
Tags: cancer, human health, medical research, scientific literacy
2 Responses to “Value of Prostate Cancer Screening Questioned by Two Studies”
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March 24th, 2009 @ 9:13 pm
I dont even understand what the writer is even talking about? anyone else? anyone want to translate into plain english for us?
May 21st, 2010 @ 1:59 pm
Having known several men who’ve been diagnosed with Prostate Cancer, any testing is better than nothing. The tests may not be perfect, but I’d rather have a false positive than a false negative – if it meant keeping my husband healthy and around longer. Dying from Prostate Cancer is excruciating. By the time that most men have been diagnosed with Prostate Cancer – their duty to God & Country has been done (fathering children)- so infertility is usually not a concern (unless we’re referring to men who believe that their virility is the source of their manhood).