No Evidence for Most TV Medical Advice, Study Shows Diana Swift December 26, 2014 Patients should be skeptical about claims and recommendations made on mainstream television medical talk shows, according to a Canadian media study published online December 17 in the British Medical Journal. In many cases, investigators found that specific details on the magnitude of benefit or harm and the cost and inconvenience of following recommendations were lacking, and evidence supporting them was contradictory or absent. Viewers had little basis for informed decision making. The prospective observational study, led by Christina Korownyk, MD, associate professor, family medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, randomly recorded 40 episodes each of the widely watched programs The Dr. Oz Show and The Doctors from early January 2013 to early May 2013 and assessed all recommendations made on both shows. These influential internationally syndicated shows, which in 2012 to 2013 each attracted 2 to 3 million daily viewers, typically featured a host or hosts and guests discussing one to five health topics per episode and making an average of 11 or 12 recommendations to consumers, some of which were stronger than others. On both shows, the visitors made a substantial proportion of health recommendations: 65% on Dr. Oz and 33% on The Doctors. To critically assess the content of these shows, experienced evidence reviewers independently searched and then, as a team, evaluated the evidence for 80 pieces of advice, randomly selected from what they considered stronger recommendations. The most frequent topic on both programs was general medical/public health advice (Get vaccinated; Sneeze or cough into your sleeve to prevent the spread of germs), followed by non-weight-loss dietary advice; for example, on immune-boosting diets. The combination of dietary and weight-loss advice represented 43.2% of the topics discussed on Dr. Oz and 16.8% of those on The Doctors. On Dr. Oz, the recommendations were most often dietary (39.2%; eg, Carb-load your plate at breakfast), although the researchers reported no direct links to specific dietary products. On The Doctors, the most common advice involved consulting a healthcare provider (17.8%): Go to your primary care doctor or talk to their nurse before going to the [emergency department] to help relieve the load in the [emergency department]. Potential conflicts of interest of hosts and guests were acknowledged only four times out of 924 recommendations. On both shows, exercise took a definite back seat to diet, with dietary advice accounting for 39% of recommendations vs 5% for exercise on Dr. Oz and 10% versus 5% on The Doctors. On either program, a specific benefit was mentioned for only about 40% of recommendations. Even less commonly mentioned were the magnitude of benefit (
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 19:34:02 +0000
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