Scared Healthy? Not Quite: Mixed Results for Changing Behavior With Imaging

More diseases of choice.

Does actually seeing the damage caused by an unhealthy lifestyle get individuals to change their risky behavior? Results are mixed, according to researchers, with behavior changing in certain circumstances, such as seeing the arterial damage caused by smoking or the damage to skin caused by prolonged exposure to the sun...

Of these five trials, two tested the effects of feedback from ultrasound results, two tested the effects of feedback from CT, and one used whole-body photography feedback from melanoma skin cancer testing. The key behavioral outcomes included smoking cessation, changes in physical activity, and changes in diet and medication use. Also included in the meta-analysis were four nonclinical studies testing imaging feedback on health behaviors related to sun and tanning-booth exposure and sun-protection behavior.

Of the five clinical trials, three studies assessing smoking cessation and arterial scans did show a significant effect favoring showing the results to patients. Of these three trials, individuals who saw the arterial scans were 2.81 times more likely to quit smoking than those who did not. The clinical trial assessing dietary intake, medication use, and arterial scanning to assess cardiovascular risk showed no statistically significant effect on behavior of showing arterial images to patients.

How typical of fat people whose only lightness of being is flying in the face of incontrovertible evidence.