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Excerpt
This book aims to help consumers and practitioners develop the skills to assess health advice – and hopefully to make decisions that will improve the quality of their care. For some people, making better-informed decisions could be life saving. We hope that it will be useful if you are struggling to come to terms with an illness or injury, and the best ways of managing it. Or you may simply want to lead a healthier life, and may be wondering how to make sense of the often conflicting flood of health information that deluges us every day, through the media, and from our friends and health practitioners.
Contents
- Dedication
- About the authors
- Before you read this book
- Acknowledgements
- Disclaimer
- I. Health advice can be harmful
- II. Your body, your choice
- 5. Smart health choice essentials
- 1 What will happen if I wait and watch?
- 2 What are my test or treatment options?
- 3 What are the benefits and harms of these options?
- 4 How do the benefits and harms weigh up for me?
- 5 Do I have enough information to make a choice?
- An evidence-based guideline or systematic review could provide the answers to your questions
- Applying the five questions: two scenarios
- References
- 6. Choosing a practitioner or a hospital
- 5. Smart health choice essentials
- III. Stories and studies
- 7. An education in shopping
- In the shopping centre ...
- How believable are the claims? ...
- About the trial ...
- Some things get better on their own ...
- The placebo effect ...
- And other study flaws ...
- Personal experiences can be important ...
- Let’s get sceptical ...
- From detergents to treatment for acne ...
- Randomised and blinded ...
- Do the benefits outweigh the harms? ...
- So does it really work? ...
- Reference
- 8. The weakness of one
- 9. The power of many
- 7. An education in shopping
- IV. Evaluating the evidence
- V. Improving your healthcare
- VI. Testing your skill
- Useful sources of health advice
- Glossary
- After you read this book
Cartoons by Ron Tandberg
Whilst the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, neither the author nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made.
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