A new international study has revealed that medicine and healthcare are both being underused and overused globally.
Up to 70 percent of hysterectomies (removal of the uterus by surgery) in the US, 25 percent of knee replacements in Spain, and more than 50 percent antibiotics prescribed in China belong to inappropriate healthcare, the study revealed. There has been an increase in Caesarian section delivery rate while the simple use of steroids to prevent premature births has been lagging for forty years.
Experts, who carried out the series of studies across the world, found that such an over/under use of medicine and healthcare is causing avoidable harm and suffering, and wasting precious resources. After conducting the studies, commissioned by The Lancet journal and involving 27 international specialists, the experts said that a common tragedy in both wealthy and poor countries is the dependence on expensive and sometimes ineffective technology while completely neglecting the low-cost, effective interventions.
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 6.2 million excess C-sections are performed each year - 50 percent of them in Brazil and China alone.
Vikas Saini, one of the lead authors of the study and president of the U.S. Lown Institute in Boston, pointed out problems like greed, competing interests, and poor information which combine to create "an ecosystem of poor healthcare delivery."
Adding to this, co-lead researcher Shannon Brownlee said that patients and citizens need to understand what is at stake if health systems fail to address these problems. The US government is wasting billions of dollars that could be devoted to improving the nation's health, he said.
The study, which analyzed the scope, causes, and consequences of underuse and overuse of healthcare around the world, found that both can occur in the same country, the same organization or health facility, and even afflict the same patient. Due to underuse of medicine and health care, patients are left vulnerable to avoidable diseases and suffering while overuse causes avoidable harms from tests or treatments that, at the same time, could be better spent, the researchers said.