General public and healthcare workers: different views on health scares

There are discrepancies between general public and healthcare professionals concerns about some major health threats. This is what emerged from a new Research Now (a company that provides services for different kind of studies and researches) survey, based on 2,000 members of the public and 600 English and American General Practitioners (GPs).

The health scares included in the study are: swine flu, BPA (the chemical found in plastic products like bottles), lead paint found on toys, bird flu, trans-fats, SARS, hormone replacement therapy, anthrax, brain tumors caused by mobile phones, the bubonic plague and AIDS. Among these, bird flu and lead paint on toys was found to be the main concerns for British general public, while Americans are more alarmed by BPA and trans-fats. On the other hand, bird flu are the only health scare shared by both British and American healthcare professionals, the other ones being are swine flu and SARS (UK), and lead paint on toys and trans-fats (US).

It is interesting to note that the three pandemics included in the survey showed no sign that either the public or healthcare professionals have become ‘tired’ of such threats, and therefore less likely to be concerned or take action in the future.