BLOG Assignment: Numero Dos! (#2)

This week for my BLOG, I am discussing the article: Study: 2 popular arthritis supplements don't work from the Washington Post. This article describes a study led by Peter Juni, who is the head of the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Bern in Switzerland. The conclusion that came out of this study was that two very popular supplements to treat arthritis, which has been used widely for the past 10 years, actually are ineffective. The study consisted of 3,803 patients who took glucosamine or chondroitin (the two popular supplements that treat arthritis in the hip or knee) or a placebo. The results showed that either supplements, taken separately or together, did better than the placebo. They came to this conclusion by analyzing the results from these patients. This is a public health issue because it is affecting a large number of people, almost the population of the elderly with arthritis problems. But, this opposed to being a medical issue, is better seen as a public health issue because if two of the most popular, widely used supplements don't work, what does? This then shifts our focus to prevention. This was a statement made at the conclusion of the article:

                                

"Some people may want to consider an over-the-counter trial as part of a wider self-management plan which includes exercise and keeping to an ideal weight," [Jane Tadman, a spokeswoman for the charity Arthritis Research U.K] suggested.

This shows how the focus is being shifted to prevention or even treatment. I chose this article because out of all the articles shown in the health section for this week, this sounded interesting and I felt like this was more public health related as compared to the other, maybe more interesting, ones. I feel like this is a relevant issue because, all jokes aside, it shows how gullible or nonchalant people can be when it comes to their medical care. It surprises me that these supplements have been used for so long and is making a lot of profit (Globally, sales of glucosamine supplements hit nearly $2 billion in 2008), especially since it does not even work. This is important mostly when it comes to ethics and when you realize the function of the people making these supplements- people should be given what actually works, especially for a widespread problem such as arthritis. I think it is also important in illustrating the relevance of public health to step in and put interventions in place to determine preventions for arthritis. The type of study done here was an Intervention (Experimental) study. From what I have learned from lectures and readings, strengths of intervention studies include them being successful in showing how effective an intervention is, the outcome can be clearly seen, and illustrates a clear temporal sequence. Weaknesses include ethical constraints; they are time consuming and expensive, and they are inefficient for rare diseases. I'm not too sure of the specifics on how this study was conducted, but insuring that it was done in a randomized and double-blind manner would yield the best results. If this was not done, this would be the best way to strengthen the study.

Thanks for visiting!

Thomasina

***All references to the article taken from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/16/AR2010091606104.html***