Heart attacks and the efficacy of polypills – a hard pill to swallow? | Letters
by Letters from Science | The Guardian on (#4NY0T)
Dr Peter Trewby questions the risk-reduction figures of the Iran study and Oliver Lepen says the focus must be on preventing disease, not medication
Your headline (Single polypill reduces risk of heart attacks and strokes, study finds, 23 August) should really have been tempered by quoting the absolute rather than the relative risk-reduction figures.
The 34% reduction in major cardiac events you quote is calculated from "on the ground" reduction in events from 8.8% over five years in those not on the polypill to 5.9% in those receiving it - that is a 2.9% chance of benefit over five years to the individual and with no effect on mortality.
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