Celebrities impact public health - not always for good
Wednesday December 18th, 2013
Doctors should take the influence of celebrities on their patients more seriously as it affects their health behaviours, doctors say today.
In
the British Medical Journal's festive edition,
out today (18 December), Dr Steven Hoffman of McMaster University, Ontario,
Canada, and colleagues point out that "The influence of celebrity
status is a deeply rooted process that can be harnessed for good or abused
for harm."
Understanding this can help doctors "educate the public about sources of health information and their trustworthiness", they add.
For example, TV broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson falsely claimed that "if you can pee against a wall from two feet, you haven't got prostate cancer," they recount.
"We need to rethink and better understand where people obtain their health information and what makes them act upon it," Dr Hoffman concludes.
Also in the journal, experts discover that in a marriage, it's better for the wife to be right and the husband to be happy. Examining the age-old question of which is best, Professor Bruce Arroll and his team at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, tested one married couple. The husband was required to agree with his wife's every opinion and request without complaint.
Both spouses reported their quality of life on a scoring scale of one to ten. Sadly, while the wife's quality of life rose slightly, the husbands' fell dramatically.
The authors say: "The results of this trial show that the availability of unbridled power adversely affects the quality of life of those on the receiving end."
In a further investigation, a team from the International University of Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, looked at whether the birth rate rose nine months after FC Barcelona won three major trophies in 2009. They found that it did indeed rise by 16%, and conclude that sporting success can affect the birth rate.
"Human emotions on a large scale can profoundly affect demographic swings in populations," they report.
Hoffman, S. J. and Tan, C. Food For Thought: Following celebrities' medical advice: meta-narrative analysis. BMJ 18 December 2013 doi: 10.1136/bmj.f7151 [abstract]
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