1 of 3 respondents rejected the idea even if it meant a shorter life
WebMD News from HealthDay
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Feb. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- One out of three adults would sooner face a shorter life span than take a daily pill to prevent heart disease, a new Internet survey found.
And about one in five would be willing to pay $1,000 or more to avoid taking that daily pill, the survey also found.
"There were a not-insignificant number of people who were ready to accept a large risk of death to avoid taking a pill for the rest of their lives," said lead author Dr. Robert Hutchins, a resident physician in the department of medicine at University of California, San Francisco. "Many patients are willing to say, 'I'd rather not do that, I'd rather risk the chance of death.' "
But while pills seemed to provoke a strong repulsion in some survey respondents, most simply shrugged and accepted the benefits over the inconveniences, the study found:
- 62 percent weren't willing to gamble any risk of immediate death over a daily pill.
- 70 percent said they wouldn't trade any weeks of their lives to avoid taking a heart pill every day.
- 43 percent said they wouldn't pay any amount of money to get out of taking a daily pill.
Hutchins declared himself more surprised over the large number of people who were willing to swallow the pill rather than risk death or endure expense.
"I was surprised at how many people said they weren't willing to risk death and they weren't willing to pay anything to avoid taking a daily pill," he said. "I was surprised that more people didn't say they would be willing to accept one out of 1 million odds to avoid taking the pill."
The survey, published Feb. 3 in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, involved 1,000 people who were asked hypothetically via the Internet how much time they were willing to forfeit at the end of their lives to avoid taking daily medication. They also were asked about the amount of money they would pay and the hypothetical risk of death they were willing to accept to avoid taking a heart pill.
source : A Pill a Day? No Way, Survey Says
