Goodsand services of all kinds are advertised to potential customers toexpand product usage and to make profits. Medications are advertised aswell. If they were not, people would be unaware of the productsavailable to them and sales may be so low that no money is made by thecompanies who have invested in the new medication.
Whenreading or hearing about drugs and medical treatments, especially newproducts, the source of the information is important. Also, all drugsand treatments have positives and negatives, so hearing a few positive(or negative) soundbites might not give a person the information theyneed to decide if the drug is right for their situation.
Statisticsare often used when medications are advertised to the general public.Yet do most people understand what the risks and benefits are? How goodis the statistical knowledge of the general population? Is it easy tothink clearly and analytically when sick, weak, or in pain?
Takethis example. Which drug would you rather take: One that reduces yourrisk of cancer by 50 percent, or another drug that only eliminatescancer in one out of 100 people? Most people would choose the drug thatreduces their risk of cancer by 50 percent, but the fact is, both ofthese numbers refer to the same drug. They’re just two different ways oflooking at the same statistic. One way is called relative risk; theother way is absolute risk.
Here’s how it works: Let’s saythere is a trial involving 100 people. Two people would normally getbreast cancer during the trial duration, but when all 100 people are puton the drug, only one person gets breast cancer. This means thereduction of breast cancer is one person out of 100. Yet the relativerisk reduction is 50 percent because one is 50 percent of two. In otherwords, the risk is cut in half from a relative point of view.
Eventhough this drug may help one out of 100 people, its side effectscreate increased risks to all 100 people. Everyone suffers some harmfrom the potential side effects of the drug, even if that harm is notimmediately evident. However, only one out of 100 people was actuallyhelped by the drug.
Review the 10 Essential Services of Public Health here: https://www.cdc.gov/stltpublichealth/publichealthservices/essentialhealthservices.html
In your post:

Discuss how 4 of the Essential Services of Public Health relate to the issues of medication advertising and biostatistics.
How would you rate your statistical knowledge? The knowledge of an average U.S. resident?
Doyou think statistics should be used when advertising new medications?How can advertisers help ensure that the stats they are using do notoversimplify or give only a partial picture of the risks involved?
Cite at least one scripture passage that pertains to this topic.

Your thread is due by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Thursday and your two replies are due by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Sunday.