Switching off to ‘too much’ health info
Healthcare professionals may be “overloading” their patients with healthy eating information, causing them to revert back to old and unhealthy habits.
A study by public health academics at Flinders analysed responses from patients in 33 Adelaide postcodes who were undertaking active or preventive treatment for cardio-vascular disease. Healthy eating is a key strategy for the self-management of chronic illness.
The study interviews revealed many participants stopped following dietary recommendations from both healthcare professionals and external sources, including television and the Internet, because they found it difficult to know which information was accurate.
Professor Paul Ward, who co-authored the study with Dr Samantha Meyer and Professor John Coveney, says the participants complained about being “bombarded” with information.
“People see themselves as being in a sea or a soup of information around diet and lifestyle that is sometimes conflicting – one day they are told salt is good and red wine is bad, the next week it can be the opposite,” Professor Ward says.
As a result, many respondents said that they tended to rely on “common sense” rather than dietary information they have been given.
“They revert to habit, back to the things they’ve always done, which may actually be seriously detrimental to their treatment,” Professor Ward says.
“From a scientific viewpoint, providing the best, most recent information to the public is obviously a good thing.
“But for a person out there in the real world trying to make decisions, it can make life more complex and uncertain. Unfortunately, one way people respond to this chopping and changing is to turn off altogether.
“This is a problem, because when new knowledge does come up and there is a need to have an effect on people’s diet or lifestyle, they may have stopped looking and listening.”
Professor Ward claims the phenomenon of patients “putting on the blinkers” in the face of too much or conflicting advice has major implications for other areas of public health.
The study is part of a wider investigation of food, health and trust by the Department of Public Health at South Australia’s Flinders University.
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