Re: New Report Finds Stronger Link Between Osteoporosis Drugs and Thigh Fracture

[Guest guest]

>

> http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/task-force-cites-stronger-bisphosp

> honate-fracture-link/story?id=

>

I am suspicious of the cited study. They claim there is increased risk for a

rare type of thigh (I assume they meant femur) fracture among people who take

the drugs. But people who are taking the drugs are presumably at increased risk

for bone fractures already. It is devilishly hard to factor this out. I confess

I have not read the original paper but color me skeptical.

[Guest guest]

The article was available as a pdf, so I've uploaded it to our Files section in

a new folder for non-CRON related articles. You can find it here:

/files/Misc/

Diane

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> >> >

> >>

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/task-force-cites-stronger-bisphosp

> >> > honate-fracture-link/story?id=

> >> >

> > I am suspicious of the cited study. They claim there is increased risk for a

> > rare type of thigh (I assume they meant femur) fracture among people who

take

> > the drugs. But people who are taking the drugs are presumably at increased

> > risk for bone fractures already. It is devilishly hard to factor this out. I

> > confess I have not read the original paper but color me skeptical.

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

>

[Guest guest]

I think it points to why we should require reading the scientific sources of

studies and not the newspaper summaries.

When a reporter summarizes a scientific work, accuracy is often sacrificed to

make the story more sensational and thus more newsworthy. It's easy to quote

one or two people who have experienced a very rare condition, but it makes the

occurrence of the condition seem more common than it really is.

Unfortunately, it's easier for an audience to relate to an anecdote than to a

statistical probability, so people are going to pay attention to the anecdotes.

To be really accurate, the reporter should also be quoting people who did *not*

experience the condition in numbers corresponding to the probability of not

getting it. That would certainly stop all the hysteria.

Diane

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> http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/task-force-cites-stronger-bisphosp

> >>>>> > >> > honate-fracture-link/story?id=

> >>>>> > >> >

> >>> > > I am suspicious of the cited study. They claim there is increased risk

> >>> for a

> >>> > > rare type of thigh (I assume they meant femur) fracture among people

who

> >>> take

> >>> > > the drugs. But people who are taking the drugs are presumably at

> >>> increased

> >>> > > risk for bone fractures already. It is devilishly hard to factor this

> >>> out. I

> >>> > > confess I have not read the original paper but color me skeptical.

> >>> > >

> >>> > >

> >>> > >

> >>> > >

> >>> > >

> >> >

> >

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