Unbalanced and poorly researched health reporting is often criticised for the effect it can have on people’s health choices. That effect can be very difficult to quantify, but a paper published this week in the Medical Journal of Australia estimates that an extra 28,000 Australians stopped taking cholesterol-lowering statins after an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) documentary.
Statins are widely-prescribed drugs that are used to lower the levels of dangerous LDL cholesterol in the blood. According to the Australian government’s most recent estimate (PDF), they were the most commonly prescribed drug in Australia in 2011. Any change in the number of people taking statins therefore has a huge impact, affecting thousands of people.
Fodder for alarmism
Statins are associated with a range of side effects, mostly minor but some more severe, which makes them an ideal subject for sensationalist reporting. The association between statins and an increased risk for diabetes recently made the headlines, despite the fact that this risk was already well-established.
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