Dear colleagues,
In further follow-up to the influenza debate and the survey I asked you to respond, I copy below the results of
EBMers’ attitudes toward influenza vaccine. Unfortunately, I had to “close” the survey a bit earlier due to some other competing engagements, but the results are interesting enough to stimulate further discussion. Even though the survey is based on a “phenomenal”
response rate (~ 1%:-), one should note that the answers come from the EBMers i.e. people highly familiar with intricacies of EBM methodology. So, you can think of the responses which you may see from the guidelines panels (NB I personally would be very comfortable
and trust the guidelines developed by the people who responded to the survey). Although the sample size does not allow to say much about temporal trends (2010 vs. 2016), the table copied below does point to one of the key EBM principles -evidence alone is
not sufficient for decision-making; other factor such as people’s attitudes to risks and benefits, emotions (regret) etc are equally important- the issues that many people who responded to the survey also commented about.
I hope the results stimulate further discussion- in fact, in my opinion, this simple survey illustrates some of
the key issues of importance to EBM.
Looking forward to some interesting debate.
Ben
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EBMers and Influenza Vaccine:
comparison of 2010 vs. 2016 survey#
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2016 (n=13*)
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2010 (n=24)**
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Question
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Yes
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No
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Yes
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No
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Personally vaccinated?
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8 (62%)
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5 (38%)
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12 (50%)
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12 (50%)
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chi(2)=0.45;p=0.501
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Recommend to your family?
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8 (62%)
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5 (38%)
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NA
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NA
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Recommend to general population?
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4 (31%)
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9 (69%)
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12 (50%)
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12 (50%)
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chi(2)=1.27;p=0.26
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#
the answers such as “tentative yes” or “tentative no” were counted as “yes” or “no”, respectively; * (second)
survey request sent on October 6, 2016 to EVIDENCE-BASED-HEALTH list and received by 1488 recipients. ** survey request sent on June 9, 2010 6 to EVIDENCE-BASED-HEALTH list and received by 1295 recipients.
From: Djulbegovic, Benjamin
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2016 11:26 AM
To:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Acceptable? BMJ & Ann Intern Med. misleading use of words - influenza vaccine study..,, please respond..
I am following up to the survey listed below to urge more people to respond to the questions related to influenza vaccination.
We are getting some interesting responses but it would be good if more people respond.
Without trying to affect the results, the short "yes" or "no" answers simply indicate how you balance perceived benefits and harms of currently available influenza vaccine ( hence,
there are really no "right" or "wrong" answers). So, please send me your responses.
I will keep the "survey" open for another week after which I will share the results with the group.
An interesting question is not only what people "should" do, but also what they actually do. Several years ago, I polled the members of this group asking to consider benefit and
harms of influenza vaccine and if they would:
a) personally accept influenza vaccine,
b) advise their family members to have influenza vaccine,
c) advise policy-makers whether they should recommend the vaccine to general population.
Of people who responded to my question, vast majority said that they would both personally take the vaccine and advise others to take. I wonder what do members of the group think
now about benefit and harms of influenza vaccine? So, please send me your answers to the questions, which I will then collate and shared with the group.
Sent from my iPad
( please excuse typos & brevity)
