Close
What does the UK public understand by the term ‘overdiagnosis’?
By rmjdapg, on 14 April 2016
Authors: Alex Ghanouni, Cristina Renzi & Jo Waller
In recent years, doctors and academics have become more and more interested in a problem referred to as ‘overdiagnosis’. There are several ways that overdiagnosis can be defined.
One particularly useful way is to think of it as the diagnosis of a disease that would never have caused a person symptoms or led to their death, whether or not it had been found through a medical test. In other words, even if a person had not had the test, the disease would never have caused them any harm.
Catching it early
It may not be obvious how this can happen. As an example, imagine a woman going for breast screening, which tries to find cancer at an early stage, before it starts causing symptoms.
The thinking behind this type of test is that if the disease is found early, it will be easier to treat and there is a higher chance of curing it. Most people are familiar with this idea that ‘catching it early’ is a good thing.
So, suppose a woman who has no symptoms goes for screening and the test finds cancer: she would usually go on to have treatment (e.g. surgery).
However, although she has no way of knowing for sure, it is possible that the cancer was growing so slowly that she would have lived into old age and died of something unrelated, without ever knowing about the cancer, had she not gone for screening.
The cancer is real but the diagnosis does not benefit the woman at all; it results in treatment that she did not need (‘overtreatment’). In fact, if she had not had the screening test, she would have avoided all the problems that come with a cancer diagnosis and treatment.
What research has found
If you find the idea of overdiagnosis counter-intuitive, you are not alone. Several studies have tried to gauge public opinion on the issue and found that this is a fairly typical view, partly because the notion that some illnesses (like cancer) might never cause symptoms or death is one that does not receive much attention and is often at odds with our personal experiences.
Results from an Australian study in 2015 found that awareness of ‘overdiagnosis’ is low – in a study of 500 adults who were asked what they thought it meant, only four out of ten people gave a description of the term that was considered approximately correct and these descriptions were often inaccurate to varying degrees.
For example, people often thought in terms of a ‘false positive’ diagnosis (diagnosing someone with one illness when really they do not have that illness at all), or giving a person ‘too many’ diagnoses.
Is this the same in the UK?
We wanted to find out whether this was also true in the UK. We asked a group of 390 adults whether they had come across the term ‘overdiagnosis’ before and asked them to describe what they thought it meant in their own words, as part of an online survey.
We found that only a minority (three out of ten people) had encountered the term and almost no-one (10 people out of all 390) described it in a way that we thought closely resembled the concept described above.
It was not always clear how best to summarize people’s descriptions but we found that people often stated that they had no knowledge or had similar conceptions to the Australian survey such as ‘false positives’ and ‘too many’ diagnoses.
Some descriptions were somewhat closer to the concept of overdiagnosis such as an ‘overly negative or complicated’ diagnosis (e.g. where the severity of an illness is overstated) but there were also some descriptions that we found more surprising such as being overly health-conscious (e.g. worrying too much about health issues).
Room for improvement
Many people who work in public health and healthcare believe that people should be aware of the possibility of overdiagnosis, particularly since they will eventually be offered screening tests in which there is this risk.
In this respect, our findings show that there is substantial room for improvement in how we inform the public about overdiagnosis. In part, this may be due to the term itself not having an intuitive meaning, in which case other terms might be more helpful (for example the term ‘unnecessary detection’).
This could be tested in future studies. Our findings also motivated us to find out the extent to which trusted information sources (such as websites run by the NHS and leading health charities) are already providing information on overdiagnosis.
We would like to share the findings from this study in a follow-up blog post. We will be posting this here soon.
This was originally posted on the BioMed Central blog network.
10 Responses to “What does the UK public understand by the term ‘overdiagnosis’?”
- 1
-
2
ALBERT MIKE wrote on 10 June 2022:
HELLO EVERYONE I WAS BROWSING THE INTERNET AND I SAW A LOT OF WRONG QUOTE CONCERNING THE ILLUMINATI SOCIETY, I FELT BAD ABOUT IT, I WANT TO LET YOU KNOW FEW THINGS ABOUT THE ILLUMINATI SOCIETY. FIRST, I JOIN THE ILLUMINATI SOCIETY THROUGH THE HELP OF AN AGENT SOMEONE INTRODUCED ME TO ONLINE, AFTER YEARS OF DETERMINATION TO BE A MEMBER. BEING A MEMBER OF THE ILLUMINATI YOUR WEALTH IS GUARANTEE, YOU WILL BE PROTECTED, FAME, POWER INFLUENCE E.T.C ALL THESE THEY WILL GIVE YOU. ONE THING I WANT TO CORRECT IS THAT THE ILLUMINATI DON’T PAY MEMBER ANY SALARY, IF YOU ARE NEWLY INITIATED THEY WILL GIVE YOU THE SEED OF WEALTH AND BLESS YOU WITH WISDOM, POWER, INFLUENCE E.T.C YOU NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL THE SEED OF WEALTH IS THE ONLY MONEY THE ILLUMINATI SOCIETY GIVE TO THEIR MEMBER, WITH THIS YOU CAN START ANYTHING WITH THE MONEY AND YOU WILL BE SUCCESSFUL. ANOTHER THING IS THAT THE SOCIETY HAVE SPECIAL BLESSING FOR POLITICIANS AND SUPER STARS. BEING AN ILLUMINATI MEMBER IS A PERSONAL DECISION, THE SOCIETY DON’T FORCE OR BEG PEOPLE TO JOIN THEM. I JOINED BECAUSE I WANT TO, NO BODY FORCE ME AND AM VERY HAPPY TO BE A MEMBER TODAY BECAUSE THEY HAVE CONTRIBUTED GREATLY TO MY LIFE BY MAKING ME ONE OF THE LEADING BUSINESS MAN IN THE WORLD. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN JOINING THE ILLUMINATI SOCIETY CALL/WHATSAPP Mr BERRY WARD on +39 351 232 2984 email grandmasterilluminati29@gmail.com HE WAS THE ONE THAT HELP ME AND I PROMISE I WILL FOREVER BE GRATEFUL.
-
3
Wilson Fox wrote on 13 July 2022:
I suffered from what they called peripheral artery disease (PAD). I have been suffering for years, Me and my wife searched for a medical cure, and then we came across a testimony of a man who suffered the same and was cured by Dr Chief Lucky. So my wife and I contacted Dr Chief Lucky via an email and thank God he replied. I explained what was wrong and he sent me herbal medicines that helped heal me completely. I am happy to say that herbal medicine is the ultimate and Dr Chief Lucky I am grateful. You can contact him on his email: chiefdrlucky@gmail.com or whatsapp: +2348132777335, Dr Chief Lucky said that he also specializes in the following diseases: LUPUS, ALS, CANCER, HPV, HERPES, DIABETES, COPD, HEPATITIS B, HIV AIDS, And more.
-
4
KIRSTEN BROWN wrote on 25 September 2022:
I was diagnosed of herpes 3 years, and ever since then i have been taking treatment to prevent outbreaks, burning and blisters, but there was no improvement until i came across testimonies of Dr. VOODOO on how he has been curing different people from different diseases all over the world, then i contacted him. After our conversation he sent me the medicine which i took according to his instructions for up to 2 weeks. After completing the medication i went back to my doctor for another test and the virus was all gone and i was completely cured, since then i have not had any signs of outbreak. I’m so filled with joy. With herbal medication Herpes Virus is 100% curable. I refer Dr VOODOO to everyone out there with the virus Email: voodoospelltemple66@gmail.com Add Dr voodoo on whatsApp +2348140120719
-
5
Jessica Brent wrote on 4 October 2022:
Hi everyone I want to share my amazing testimony on how Dr Graham blessed my life. I have been playing lottery game for long now and I don’t usually win, I came across a testimony of someone testifying about how Dr Graham prayed for him and gave him a lottery game numbers to play and he won big amount of money, so I also decided to try my luck, I contacted him through his Email and he assured me that he will help me, he told me it will take him 24 hours to pray for me.So after the 24 hours he gave me some lottery numbers to play and I went to play the game so on that faithful day I went to check the game to my greatest surprise I won a very big amount $20 million that changed my life and my status, I quit working as a sale woman in the supper market and I became a business owner. I want you out there to also contact him for your lucky game. You can reach him via his info below
Email: dr.graham.spelltemple@gmail.com
WhatsApp Number: +13153230824 -
6
Patricia Busking wrote on 2 November 2022:
Good day viewers.. I have been trying to win the lottery for some years now but I have not been lucky enough to win a dime. In search of assistance on how I can at least be a winner of any lottery, I found out about Dr Amber who has been helpful with his winning numbers he gets through his spells to help people win the lottery. I got in touch with him to know how I can win the lottery and he told me everything I needed to know and do before the spell can be done for me and I acknowledge it. He prepared the spell for me and gave me the winning numbers to play and instructed me what to do as I played the jackpot lottery. I did as he instructed and after a week, I decided to check if I was lucky enough to be among the winners. I screamed out in Joy immediately I saw my ticket numbers as the winner of $393 million dollars. I’m so grateful and appreciative to Dr Amber for helping me. You can reach him on WA +12096910783 or call +13183065044 or email: amberlottotemple@yahoo.com for any help.
-
7
Phil Jenkins wrote on 5 November 2022:
I bought this herbal medicine from the herbal doctor [Robinson Buckler]. I took the herbal medicine for 2 weeks as instructed and i went for a medical checkup and to my greatest surprise i was cured from Herpes virus. My heart is so filled with joy. If you are suffering from Herpes or any other disease you can contact this herbal doctor today on this Email: Robinsonbuckler11@gmail. com…..Robinson.buckler@yahoo.com…………… […][…][…][…][…][…][…]
[Arthritis]
[Herpes]
[Lovespell to get Ex back]
[The Opioid Epidemic]
[Stroke]
[Obesity]
[Infertility/Impotency]
[Eye Problem]
[Fibroid Tumor]
[Enlarge Prostate]
[Weak erection] -
8
Chloe hazel wrote on 15 November 2022:
Hi guys, I don’t have much to say right now rather than to say thank you to Dr Alli for rescuing me and my family from poverty. I love playing the lottery but winning big is always the issue for me. I will never forget the day I came in contact with Dr Alli whose lottery spell made me a winner of $560,000,000 million dollars cash prize on the jackpot lottery game I played just by giving me sure winning numbers within 3 days to play the lottery game after he prepared the lottery spell for me. My financial status has changed for good and I’ve started to live my dream life after 14 years of playing the lottery. Thank you Dr Alli for I’m very grateful for all you’ve done for me and my family. You can call or message Dr Alli via his allispellhelp1@gmail.com or WhatsApp him +2348100772528
-
9
John woo wrote on 31 May 2023:
Amazing herbs to cure herpes virus completely this is a very important to share to everyone who is suffering from herpes virus inbox Doctor Akhigbe on his email Drakhigbeherbalhome5@gmail.com contact his whatsApp +2349021374574.
-
10
juwan james wrote on 13 September 2023:
HOW I GOT FREE FROM HERPES VIRUS BY DR ISHIAKU HERBS
I want to inform the public how I was cured of herpes Virus by a Doctor called Dr ISHIAKU. I visited different hospitals but they gave me a list of drugs like Famvir, Zovirax, and Valtrex which are very expensive to treat the symptoms and never cured me. I was browsing through the Internet searching for remedies on Herpes and I saw comments of people talking about how Doctor Ishiaku cured them. I Was scared because I never believed in the Internet but I was convinced to give him a try because I had no hope of being cured of herpes so I decided to contact him on his email, i searched his email on the net and I saw a lot of people testifying about his goodness. When I contacted him he gave me hope and sent a Herbal medicine to me that I took and it seriously worked for me, am a free person now without any problems, my HERPES result came out negative. You can contact him on his email: (ishiakuherbalcure@yahoo.com) or what – sapp him via +2348180828544 and get all your problems solved.
1)Sickness of any kind
2)Help to cure HEPATITIS B, DIABETICS, and BIPOLAR
3)Divorce, Breakup problem, To Re-unit or to cast a spell
4)Pregnancy problem
5)Financial problem and Job promotion
6)bad mouth odour or tooth problem
7)eye or ear problem etcNote: DR ISHIAKU HERBAL MEDICATION ARE 100% DR SEBI APPROVED
Goodnews to everyone out there with different health challenges as I know there are still a lot of people suffering from different health issues and are therefore looking for solutions. I bring you Good news. There is a man called Dr Osato, a herbal practitioner who cures me from HSV2, i have suffered from this virus for the past 5 years. I got my healing by taking the herbal medicine Dr Osato sent to me to drink for two weeks and after the completion of the dosage, I went for a medical checkup and I tested Negative and my doctor confirmed with me that I was completely free from HSV2. All thanks to God for leading me to Dr Osato who was able to cure me completely from this horrible virus, I’m sharing this so that other people can know of this great healer called Dr Osato because I got to know him through Martha Jecorick post who he cured from HSV1&2 . I was made to understand that he can cure several other deadly diseases and viruses. Don’t die in ignorance or silence thinking that there is no cure for HSV1&2 or HIV and don’t let that illness take your life. Contact Dr Osato and get the cure from him. Dr Osato email is osatoherbalcure@gmail.com or WhatsApp him on +2347051705853 and His website is osatoherbalcure.wordpress.com . He cure all forms of diseases/virus {1}HIV/AIDS {2}DIABETES {3}EPILEPSY {4} CANCER or all kind {5} HPV {6} BRAIN TUMOR {7} HEPATITIS {8}COPD{9} SICKLE AND ANAEMIA {9} HSV1&2. Be kind enough to share as you read for others to know and get cured.