Consumer Health, Eighth Edition
Preface to Instructors
Consumers regularly must confront the complicated and confusing health marketplace where caveat emptor(let the buyer beware) is the dominant philosophy. The rapid expansion of medical science has created innumerable new health products and services. Many of these receive considerable publicity before they have been adequately subjected to scientific study.
Consumers often have difficulty in making intelligent decisions about products and services that are useless, worthless, or hazardous. Quacks, pseudoscientists, many advertisers, many journalists, and a multitude of well-intentioned promoters spread vast amounts of misinformation. Fraud and deception are rampant. Consumers are bilked out of billions of dollars each year, and many suffer loss of health as well. Unfortunately, government and community agencies provide far less protection than most people realize. Navigating the legitimate avenues of the health marketplace can also be difficult and complex.
Consumers who wish to protect their health and their pocketbooks therefore must shop with great care. They must become accurately informed. They must learn how to identify and use reliable sources of information. They must accept responsibility and speak out when they are victims of fraud and deception. They must raise objections to dubious products and services and report them to the appropriate regulatory agencies.
Goal for This Revision
This eighth edition of Consumer Health continues to emphasize the economic aspects of health and the social and psychologic factors that influence consumer choices. As with previous editions, the book’s fundamental purpose is to provide science-based facts and guidelines to enable consumers to select health products and services intelligently. Its data have been selected from thousands of reliable reports in books, scientific journals, and other periodicals, as well as original investigations done by the book’s authors. Readers will find the information useful in applying the caveat vendor (let the seller beware) concept to the health marketplace.
The underlying principles of consumer health were identified in the Consumer Bill of Rights promulgated by President John F. Kennedy and have guided the development of this textbook. President Kennedy declared that consumers have the right to purchase safe products and services, to be correctly informed, to freely choose products and services, and to be heard by the government and others when injustices occur. We strongly support consumer awareness and advocacy of these rights.
Intended Audience
Consumer Health can be helpful to teachers, health educators, health professionals, and the general public. It can be used as a basic text or for supplementary reading in courses such as consumer health, community health, health education, consumer education, sociology, psychology, home economics, social welfare, and business. School districts will find Consumer Health useful as a reference for teachers and students, as well as an aid in curriculum development. Professional health-care providers can use this text to prepare for public presentations and can make it available in their offices for perusal by clients.
Timeliness of References
Every topic in this book has been carefully researched. In most cases, the more than 1600 cited references represent the latest authoritative information we could locate. Some references may appear outdated because they are 5 to 10 years old. Unless otherwise stated, however, we believe these still reflect the current marketplace. References more than 10 years old are included for historical reasons or because they provide insights that are still timely. Some reports published long ago are the only ones we can find that address important concepts.
Chapter 1 provides information on how to read citations and locate references. Those that may be especially useful for students seeking additional information are listed with boldface numbers. When citing material on Web sites, we report the publication date when the site identifies it. When no date is posted, we report when we last accessed the page.
Features
All features from the seventh edition have been retained. Many chapters contain vignettes (“Personal Glimpses”) to stimulate reader interest and “Consumer Tip” boxes that emphasize key points. Many checklists and “It’s Your Decision” boxes reflect “real-life” decisions that readers may face. The “Key Concepts” box at the beginning of each chapter states what we believe are the most important lessons to be learned from the chapter material. Extensive searching of the scientific literature and personal investigation by the authors have provided information to update the contents of this edition.
The most important feature of this edition is its integration with the Internet. The Internet section of Chapter 2 has been expanded. The “References” section of Consumer Health Sourcebook (www.chsourcebook.com) provides links to many full-text articles and to abstracts of most of the journal articles. Suggestions for course objectives, teaching/learning activities, a sample course outline, and links to hundreds of organizations that provide reliable information are also posted.
Students and instructors are welcome to subscribe to Consumer Health Digest, a free weekly e-mail newsletter edited by Dr. Barrett with help from Dr. London. (To subscribe, see www.ncahf.org/digest/chd.html.) Relevant new items will also be posted in Consumer Health Sourcebook’s “Chapter Update” section.
New Information
New material has been added on “alternative” and “complementary” health care, dietary supplements, fad diets, herbs, magnetic products, dubious cancer treatments, questionable mental help procedures, safety measures, indoor air quality, and dubious diet products. The additions reflect an explosion of media interest in these topics, plus new information made available by investigative reporters. The nutrition and cardiovascular disease chapters have been revised to incorporate the latest dietary and cholesterol-control guidelines. Other new topics include umbilical cord blood banking, help for erectile dysfunction, tattoos, body piercing, and dubious sexual enhancement products.
Organization
As in the seventh edition, the text is broadly divided into six parts:
- Dynamics of the Health Marketplace focuses on past and present problems. After defining the major consumer health issues, it discusses how the scientific method is used to determine medical truths, how consumers can separate fact from fiction, how frauds and quackery can be identified, and how advertising and other marketing activities influence consumer decisions.
- Health-Care Approaches covers basic medical care, the services of many types of science-based and “alternative” practitioners, self-care, and health-care facilities. The self-care chapter has been shortened but made more relevant for a young-adult audience.
- Nutrition and Fitness integrates what consumers need to know about the extremely important topics of nutrition, weight control, and exercise. Its chapters provide the necessary tools for distinguishing between science-based methods and fads, fallacies, and scams.
- Major Health Problems covers three of the leading causes of death and disability in our society: cardiovascular diseas, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. The former chapter about arthritis has been eliminated, with some of its content incorporated into other chapters
- Other Products and Services covers a myriad of other subjects that affect most, if not all, consumers. These include drug products, skin care and image enhancement. contraceptive methods, vision and hearing aids, and other devices.
- Protection of the Consumer focuses on legal and economic issues involved in protecting consumers. These include death-related issues, health insurance, other economic issues, consumer-protection laws and agencies, and strategies for intelligent consumers.
- The Appendix provides comprehensive lists of agencies and organizations that offer reliable information. The Consumer Health Sourcebook Web site links to most of them.
- The Glossary continues to include many useful items not discussed elsewhere in the book.
Acknowledgments
No book like this could have been written without help from many experts and other providers of information. The authors offer special thanks to the following experts who reviewed portions of the text: Judith N. Barrett, M.D. (several chapters); John E. Dodes, D.D.S. (Dental Care); Gail Orum-Alexander, Pharm.D. (Drug Products); and Timothy N. Gorski, M.D., F.A.C.O.G. (Sexual and Reproductive Health).
The photograph on page 172 is reproduced with permission from Aurora & Quanta Productions, Portland, Maine. The VIPPS logo on page 393 appears with permission of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.
Three McGraw-Hill staff members guided the book’s planning and production: Nick Barrett, whose vision made publication possible, and Linda Huenefeld and Beth Baugh, our project coordinators.
Freelance editor Sarah West, of Belleville, Illinois, did her usual superb job of copy editing.
This page was revised on July 17, 2006.