Self-centered Syllogism: Bad in public health, bad anywhere

I recently met someone who had seen a couple of my blog posts, was interested in public health, and asked a few interesting questions. My answers – or, really, comments – were things I have said and written about before, but his questions forced me to put them together, and in my opinion, the issues bear repeating.

The first question he asked was “why do we put so much emphasis on smoking but not on alcohol? After all, smoking never caused someone to beat their children or spouse, or to drive impaired and have an accident, or get into a bar fight and beat, shoot, or stab someone else.” That is true, and it raises the issue of the impact of substance abuse on the individual versus on the society (although second-hand smoke causes a lot of deaths). But the real answer is the incredible mortality caused by smoking. The CDC page identifies tobacco as the cause of nearly a half-million deaths in the US annually. While the data is from 15-20 years ago, and (hopefully) the mortality rate from tobacco has decreased as its usage has decreased, this is an astonishing statistic. Deaths from tobacco exceeded the total of deaths from alcohol, plus illegal drugs, plus accidents, plus homicides, plus suicides. It remains, even as smoking has decreased, a major health problem. The CDC says, “Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable mortality in the United States”. It was, therefore, the focus of public health efforts because of its tremendous impact on mortality.

However, of course, alcohol is also a major problem, causing both death and severe morbidity (bad outcomes besides death). It is, as my questioner noted, highly associated with violence against both family members and strangers, with automobile deaths, with homicide and not-homicide violence. It also, of course, kills people who use it, from diseases such as cirrhosis and heart disease as well as many cancers that are more common in heavy drinkers. We all have heard someone who did something very bad (commit violence against family members or strangers, have a car wreck, etc.) say “It was the alcohol. I wouldn’t have done it if I were sober”. But they were not sober, they had been drinking, and probably had often been.

The American Addiction Centers alcohol.org estimate that 88,000 people die from alcohol-related violence and abuse and accidents. The site also notes that “The American Society of Addiction Medicine notes that between 28% and 43% of violent injuries, and 47% of homicides, alcohol has been estimated to be involved.” That is a lot, and it could be an underestimate, but it is the closest I can get to quantifying the attributable risk for violence from alcohol. The concept of “attributable risk” in public health can be understood as the percentage of “bad outcome X” that would go away if “risky behavior Y” went away. This is different from the amount that it increases an individual’s risk; some behavior “Y” may increase your risk a lot but, because it is relatively uncommon, account for less attributable risk. Examples include asbestos and lung cancer (very high increase in risk but a lower percent of cases, compared to smoking). Or, looking at it inversely in terms of what disease a risk factor causes, smoking and lung cancer vs. heart disease. Smoking increases the risk of lung cancer more than it does heart disease, but because heart disease is so much more common, the attributable risk from smoking, the number of lives that would not be lost if people didn’t smoke, would be more from heart disease than lung cancer. An example of “smaller percentages of larger numbers can be greater than larger percentages of smaller numbers”.

So what did I say about alcohol? He identified the fact that there is a very large industry of alcohol manufacturers and sellers, which have great influence. I noted that there was (is) also a great industry of tobacco manufacturers and sellers. He said that in addition to the manufacturers, there were also many businesses, restaurants and bars whose existence depended on the sale and use of alcohol. The current emphasis we see in “alcohol reform” is “don’t drink too much”, a common “PSA” from alcohol manufacturers. The implicit message, however, is “do drink!”.

I think most of the members of our society, including many of those still smoking, recognize that any amount of smoking is bad for you, and more is worse, but I do not think that the same is true for alcohol use. The general attitude, even among medical and public health professionals, seems to be “a lot of drinking is obviously bad, for you and for others, but a little – like I do – is not.” What could be wrong with a couple of beers? A couple of glasses of wine? Especially if you’re not driving? Aren’t there studies that show a little red wine is good for you?

There are such studies but they are dated, poorly done, and wrong. Pretty much, while more is worse, there is no amount of alcohol consumption that is good for your health, and any amount is somewhat bad. We disparage those who use other drugs (heroin, cocaine, crack, meth, even still cannabis) for entertainment, but much of our society is actually built around alcohol as the “social lubricant”. Restaurants, bars, parties. Family events like weddings and funerals. Most of such entertainment revolves around alcohol. Perhaps the only place where alcohol is not the key component of “having fun” would be at an AA meeting! This issue is seriously joined by Holly Whitaker in her book “Quit Like a Woman: The radical choice not to drink in a culture obsessed by alcohol”.

The key here is that so many people drink (if “responsibly”, by which they usually mean “not too much” and “not when driving”) that they have to justify themselves by saying it is OK. I call this the “Dirk Gently Phenomenon” from Douglas Adams’ book “Dirk Gently’s Wholistic Detective Agency”. The lead character, who dies on the first page, was a millionaire who made his money by essentially developing syllogisms that took you from the data you had to the conclusion you had foreordained (his biggest client was the US Department of Defense). This is pretty much what we do in lots of areas, including alcohol use; we decide on what we want the answer to be and then look for evidence that supports it.

My new friend noted his son had been in a public health program a few years ago when the big emphasis was on obesity and its health effects. I nodded, but it not so much any more. Obesity has big health effects, yes, but it is also easy to disparage people who are overweight. This is a manifestation of another common tendency among people (including among health professionals): to be critical of people who do (or don’t do) things that come easily to you to do or not do, and conversely minimize the significance of the negative behaviors that you do (or don’t do). If you are naturally thin and have an no difficulty keeping weight off, it is easy to criticize those who are overweight. However, if you like your fancy wine or craft beer or expensive single-malt scotch, you don’t think drinking is such a bad thing. Or, for that matter, being self-righteous.

Public health is good and important. In the US, it is grossly underfunded compared to individual medical care (about 1% of health care dollars). But, like much of medicine it is also subspecialized. To a large degree, public health researchers go where the money is available for grants – in obesity, or smoking, or violence prevention, etc., and become specialists in that area. It is (or should be) different in primary care. As a family doctor, I can measure and counsel you on your blood pressure, but I cannot ignore your diabetes or lung disease and just refer you to another specialist. Similarly, while public health specialists “do obesity” or “do child seats”, this is not an option for the family physician. I need to help you to stop smoking, but cannot ignore that you need to use a seatbelt. Or get vaccinated. Or would have a greater probability of better health outcomes if you lost some weight. Or did not drink so much. Or at all.

Judging others for doing (or not doing) what we find it easy to not do (or do) and minimizing the damage caused by what we ourselves do is a big logical flaw, as is the “Dirk Gently” fallacy. They are not attractive, appropriate, or helpful or good for anyone, and are especially dangerous coming from medical or public health professionals.

Whence, and whither, family medicine: will it have role in improving our nation’s health?: Part 2

The 25th J. Jerry Rodos Lecture, presented at the 30th Annual Conference of Primary Care Access, Kauai, April 8, 2019:

Part II: More whence, and some whither family medicine

Family medicine introduced many great things to medical education. We had non-physician faculty in our departments and residencies, psychologists and educators, unheard of then. We valued education, and realized that just being a good doctor was not the same as being a good teacher, so created faculty development programs, including fellowships, often supported by Title VII grants. Our Board required recertification from the beginning, and no one, not even those who created it, were immune, or “grandfathered in”. Many of these innovations (if not the “no grandfathering”) were adopted later by other specialties, although not always crediting the discipline family medicine. And many specialties have not adopted them yet, still to their shame.

But, in the US, family medicine is still somewhat on the margins. It never completely took over as the centerpiece of the health system, not as in Canada or the UK. Much of the opposition has been regional, especially in the NE, and in cities where there were already plenty of doctors who did not want to give up control – or money (remember that word, money, we’ll be coming back to it). Of course, then, as now, most pundits who comment on medicine – actually, on all things – are, at least relatively, well to do. Poor people often adopt such attitudes as “specialists are better”, because they assume that what the rich have is better (bigger houses, better cars, certainly better doctors), although those of us who went to medical school know that that is not necessarily true. Our classmates who wanted to become elite subspecialists caring for the rich did that, and those who wanted to serve the needy did that, and it had little or nothing to do with class rank or skill. Of course, the obstacle to poor people getting what the rich get is, well, they don’t have, and so their doctors wouldn’t make, enough money!!

The small-town white picket fence practice, of Marcus Welby and many fathers and grandfathers (less commonly mothers or grandmothers) of current FPs, such as many of those portrayed in Fitzhugh Mullan’s book ‘Big Doctoring’,[1]

may be mostly gone, but that model was long the darling of the RRC; those of us working in inner-city training settings often felt that the rules were written for someone else. 

Other issues confront us, sometimes divide us. Should the future of family medicine be about “full scope” practice, including caring for children, delivering babies, hospital work, emergency care, musculoskeletal care? Or should it be limited, specialized even (OB, geriatrics, sports medicine)?  Should we be using the term primary care or family medicine? What about general internal medicine? Pediatrics? GIM has pretty much abandoned the field, since 80% of IM graduates become subspecialists and over half the remainder become hospitalists. Should we just stop saying “primary care” and insist on “family medicine”?

Most of us recoil at the oft-heard-from-medical-students idea that GIM is family medicine without the OB and pediatrics. We think that there is a conceptual basis for our specialty that has to do with caring for the whole person and caring for them in the context of their lives, families and communities. Despite the concerns of the young Josh Freeman, this context is critical. The pediatrician cares about the health of the child she cares for, and likely that of the adult that child will become. The family physician also cares for both, but more concretely than the pediatrician experiences the health issues that adults face that often have at least part of their roots in their childhood experiences. In addition, the family doctor cares for that child’s family, and knows, for example, that the child’s mother is not just “mom” (I hate that usage!) but someone with their own problems, maybe a hard job, maybe not enough money, maybe a troubled relationship, maybe caring for her own parents, maybe with her own health issues. I have often said that if clinical sciences have associated basic sciences (like psychology for psychiatry, and anatomy for surgery) then anthropology is the basic science for family medicine because it examines people in the context of their families and communities.

Family medicine is also comprehensive, per se, by its nature. I was once able to recruit an anthropologist to our department because she wanted to work in that comprehensive context, and public health/preventive medicine didn’t really offer it. Preventive medicine is seen by some as holistic, but it segments just as medical specialties do: I do smoking, you do seat belts, she does bicycle helmets, he does violence. But the family physician has to address them all. We can’t say “wear your seat belt” but ignore “stop smoking”! Or, is that what we want FM to become? Geriatricians and sports medicine and women’s health? Hospitalists and ambulists, nocturnists and weekendists? (By the way, that anthropologist went on to help run the AAFP’s national research network.)

Sometimes the issue of how family physicians practice is formulated as a conflict between lifestyle and scope. Is that true? Maybe. Maybe it is good to not take call, or too much call, or have to round in the hospital or have to get up to deliver a baby in the middle of the night. But it may also be true that for a well-trained family doctor, 8-5 clinic patients can become drudgery. Sometimes teaching helps. And what about the issue of lifestyle vs lifestyle? People want to move to and practice in cool places to live, with a lot going on, stimulating cultural events and good educational systems. But these places may pay less money and cost more to live in. Besides your practice, do you want to be San Francisco poor or Nebraska well-to-do? That old white picket fence family doc may have had no conflict, but now young people do.

There have been lots of changes in the health system in my lifetime. Family medicine was created in the 1960s and grew to adolescence in the 1970s. In the 1980s we had lots of promise; Nixon pushed for HMOs, and in the 1990s we had gatekeepers – and different opinions about whether that was good or bad. Our best resident matches were in the late 1990s; no student wanted to be an anesthesiologist because they were afraid of not getting a job. But now ….

One study showed a student entering an anesthesiology residency can expect to make $7 million more in their lifetime than one entering family medicine. In this country. When I was in Denmark a few years ago I visited a rural family practice. In conversation, the doctor mentioned his daughter was married to an anesthesiologist. Tied to my own country’s norms I joked that at least he wouldn’t have to worry about being supported in his retirement. Oh, he replied, in Denmark family doctors make more than anesthesiologists!

Is it all about money?

We have a health system that fails to focus on the health of the people. We have almost abandoned the concept of public health. Indeed, the currency of the term “population health” is more than a semantic difference. Population health can be narrowly defined to be any population – the population of your practice, say -- and it can and does often leave people out. The people who are hard to care for, or don’t make money for us, or mess up our statistics.  Public health requires us to look at the WHOLE public. Eew! How messy!

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[1] Mullan, Fitzhugh. Big Doctoring in America: Profiles in Primary Care. Millbank. 2002.