The organisers of Australia's “healthy bones week” have come under fire for making exaggerated and misleading claims about the dangers of osteoporosis—the loss of bone density that raises the risk of fracture with age.
“Fact 1” on a poster sent to Australian general practitioners last week read: “More Australian women die from osteoporosis than all female cancers combined.” There was no reference to back up the statement, and a search has been unable to find any evidence to support it. Sydney general practitioner Mark Donohoe, a government adviser on false health claims whose surgery was sent the poster, described the claim as “patent rubbish” and a “bald faced lie.”
The Australian Bureau of Statistics ranks cancer as the leading cause of death, responsible for almost 28% of all deaths. Osteoporosis is not listed in the top 12 causes of death or the top 10 chronic conditions.
When contacted for comment the charity, Osteoporosis Australia, at first defended the claim but after further questioning conceded it had been “poorly written.” A correction is soon to be sent to general practitioners, and advertisements clarifying the “fact” will be placed in medical magazines.
The false claim that more women die from osteoporosis than cancer was a distortion of another “fact” being promoted by Osteoporosis Australia, cosponsor of healthy bones week with Dairy Australia, that mortality in women from hip fracture was “greater than the incidence of all female cancers combined.”
According to Dr Donohoe this is a meaningless statement because it compares the death rate in a particular group of women who are at higher risk of death anyway with the chances for all women of getting cancer. Professor David Henry, from the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, said it is like comparing apples and donkeys.
Exaggerating the size or severity of a medical condition is a common feature of many disease awareness activities backed by drug companies, although this may be an extreme case. Other examples include campaigns sponsored by drug companies claiming that a million Australians have a psychiatric condition called social phobia, 40% of men suffer from problems with erections, and almost one in two women have a condition called female sexual dysfunction (BMJ 2003;326: 45-7).
Just two months ago a specialist in pharmaceutical marketing described how drug companies were now routinely involved not only in raising awareness but in fostering the creation of new diseases. An article in the May issue of Medical Marketing and Media, (2003;38: 43-49), explains how companies helped create panic disorder, erectile dysfunction, and premenstrual dysphoric disorder to build bigger markets for their pills. The article was written by Vince Parry, chief branding officer at InChord, a network of marketing companies with 500 employees.