Eighty to 90 per cent of respondents say they'd opt for the treatment. Only 40 per cent of respondents say they'd take the treatment. Only 30 per cent say they'd agree to the treatment. Such dramatically different responses to what boils down to be the same information has also been documented by researchers in Ontario and Alberta. They found that statistical presentation has a big impact on both patients and doctors.
Drug manufacturers are well aware of the power of numbers.
The ads, prominently displayed in newspapers across the country earlier last year, featured hockey player Darryl Sittler, whose father died prematurely of a heart attack. Rangno notes the numbers don't tell the whole story. That translates into a 2.4 per cent absolute risk reduction. As for the ad's claim that 62 per cent reduction in second heart attacks, Bristol-Myers official Nacia Faure says that figure is based on studies involving 1,819 people who had already suffered a heart attack or had angina. Over three years, 2.4 per cent of people given pravastatin had heart attacks, compared to 6.4 per cent of the people taking placebos - a four per cent absolute risk reduction.