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News Releases
Free Online Course to Help Educate People About Arthritis News, Advertising
Columbia, Mo. (Sept. 16, 2004) - Ever wondered whether black-mamba venom could really heal your arthritic knee or whether cocoa beans will banish back pain faster than Advil? Arm yourself with a fine fake-claim detector and wonder no more.
Such is the goal of a new free online course developed by researchers at the Missouri Arthritis Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (MARRTC) at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dubbed “Fact from Fiction: Reading Between the Lines of Arthritis News and Advertising,” the course’s goal is to arm people with arthritis, as well as their caregivers and family members, with an arsenal of tools to critically evaluate advertising claims and tell the difference between credible and unproven remedies.
Arthritis and related conditions affect 70 million people in the United States alone, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making them a lucrative market to target for both the pharmaceutical and alternative medicine industries.
“New products for treating symptoms of arthritis seem to appear weekly,” explains John Hewett, director of biostatistics at the MU School of Medicine and the project’s principal investigator. “How are individuals supposed to know which product will help them? Suppose there is an ad in a magazine that suggests that peach pulp will reduce pain. How do I know that this is really true?”
Long gone are the days when people’s sole source of health information was their doctor’s office. Today, more than ever, consumers are bombarded by health information, much of which contains bogus claims, deceptive ads and half-truths. When it comes to advertising of health products, what you don’t know can cost you a lot—not only dollar-wise, Hewett points out.
“A considerable number of treatments are costly, thus much money can be wasted in purchasing products that aren’t really effective,” Hewett says. “Sometimes when certain combinations of drugs are consumed simultaneously, bad reactions can occur.”
But why are so many people willing to shell out money on dubious remedies, so much so that the alternative medicine industry has ballooned to a $15-billion-a-year business?
“If I have had serious pain in my knees for a considerable length of time which keeps me from going up and down stairs I am willing to grasp at straws so to speak to relieve the pain,” Hewett says. “If someone is quoted in an ad where they say that this product has reduced their pain I may jump at the chance to try it out.”
This course is not intended to suggest specific products as treatments, nor is it intended to replace information you receive from your doctor, Hewett warns.
Students will interact with the instructor and other class members online for one hour per week for six weeks, Oct. 18 through Dec. 3. While online, students will read prepared material and then test their knowledge. Lessons can be accessed at any time and are designed for anyone, regardless of educational background.
Anyone who has the ability to use e-mail and can read the newspaper is qualified to take the course. It is also important that they possess the willingness to learn new information.
The Missouri Arthritis Research Rehabilitation and Training Center
(MARRTC) was established in 1971 at the University of Missouri-Columbia
Arthritis Center. MARRTC is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's
National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and is the
only federally funded arthritis rehabilitation research and training
center in the country.
As part of the MU Health Communication Research Center (HCRC),
MARRTC's mission is to become a national leader in the areas of
disability management and communication, improve the quality of life and
promote independent living among people who have arthritis and arthritic
conditions. MARRTC's core message is "Disability is everyone's issue."
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