Marc, Either we're on to the calculation or we're headed for the same assisted care facility. (I did my calculations on a "population" of 1000)
Your figures do a better job of illustrating the number of false alarms (and we could scale up your figure to talk about the number of false alarms in a population the size of the US). So what is the benefit of 13,818 people in a population of 100,000 who are freaked out by an incorrect diagnosis of Alzheimer's? How much are they spending on Gingko Balboa and various useless and potentially harmful alternative "cures" to delay the inevitable (that will never occur because they don't really have Alzheimer's)? Might they have spent this money on other things that would actually improve their health and quality of life? There is an interesting literature on the negative effects of stress and ugly side effects associated with additional diagnostic procedures associated with false alarm to mammograms. So this is not a trivial question. Claudia --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
