SCIENTIFIC STUDIES AND THEIR APPLICABILITY
IN EVERY DAY LIFE
Have you ever heard the term WEIRD? I do
not mean it in the deviation from normal, sense of the word but
Western Educated Industrialized Rich
Democratic Societies, it is in the first chapter of the book by Jared Diamond:
The World Until Yesterday.
He writes, “ yet psychologists base most of
their generalizations about human nature on studies of our own narrow and
atypical slice of human diversity”. Most of the papers published in
psychological journals deal with subjects who are not even typical of the
societies they live in, he continues.
So it is always interesting to read Medical
Journals in which an “Intensive” treatment regimen is compared to the “usual
care”. As it is well known, a large fraction of clinical studies involving
drugs or weight loss methods come from the USA. And of course, the lay press
and the media would tout the results:
Weight Loss Can be maintained over a Long
Period of Time
But if you read the description of the
studies, the “Intensive” care is so atypical of the care that is provided and
can be afforded by the population of obese people in the United States, where
as the usual care is the one most of them can hope to obtain, and in the case
of the poor people, have not hope of obtaining. It is good to remember that, in
industrialized societies, majority of the poor are overweight or obese.
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Experimental: Lifestyle Intervention
Participants in the lifestyle intervention arm are
offered individual and group sessions designed to help achieve and maintain
weight loss.
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Behavioral: Lifestyle Intervention
The lifestyle intervention is implemented
with
individual supervision and group
sessions and is aimed at achieving and
maintaining
at least a 7% decrease in
weight from baseline and 175 minutes
per week in
physical activity.
It is implemented during a four-year
period with the most intensive application
during the
first year, less frequent
attention
during the next three years,
and a minimum of twice yearly contacts
during an
extended follow-up period.
To help participants achieve and
maintain weight loss, a variety of diet
strategies (e.g. prepared meals and
liquid formula), exercise strategies,
and optional weight loss medications
are utilized based on a preset algorithm
and participant progress.
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Active Comparator: Diabetes Support and Education
The diabetes support and education arm provides
group sessions on diabetes management and social support.
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Behavioral: Diabetes Support and
Education
Participants assigned to diabetes
support and education are offered
three sessions each year in diabetes
management and social support.
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While we are taught that we must compare
oranges to oranges and apples to apples, studies coming out compare oranges to
apples and say that oranges are not as sweet as apples or some such.
Studies such as these reinforce the current
understanding that societal forces play an important part in the overweight and
obesity “crisis” in the industrialized nations, and that we must look at the system
rather than the individual for an answer, in addition to the general education
of the public as well as availability of reasonably priced, good quality food
without much chemical interference!
Social System, write the sociologists,
Sociological
idea that society and health are structures that
are
well when they are in a homeostatic equilibrium and that change is
chaos.
