Friday, 18 September 2009

• Why Healthkicker is UNETHICAL

  

  Healthkicker is a Xanga site that compiles health posts submitted by Xanga users. I used to submit my posts to them when I initially started my blog, but I stopped very quickly because they started to annoy me so much! I didn't want to be associated with them, and also if I submitted all my posts to them, then it'd be like I'm slave working for them for free. There would be no point in subscribing to my site. That may seem selfish, but I do support Xanga. I purchased premium membership so I think that says enough.

  I initially disliked Healthkicker because you don't know who is writing for it. The people who write for Healthkicker do not have any credentials. They could be kids! Do you want to listen to a kid when it comes to your health?

  

  Healthkicker is unethical because they confuse the public. I had a conversation with my professor the other day about how unfair it is to the public to be having all these mixed messages given to them. I have bashed Healthkicker before when they published an article about how Slimfast is a good diet.

  This is the post that pissed me off. The writer took a piece of correlational research and implied that it was causative. Doesn't make much sense? This is basic research methods that anyone would learn in a first year psychology course.

  Correlational research means that there appears to be an ASSOCIATION between two things, but it does NOT mean that one thing causes the other! One needs to be really careful when reading any kind of health information or research. Here's why.

  In the particular study from this Healthkicker writer, it was found that a population of people with high levels of alcohol drinking also had high levels of physical activity. This is correlational research because it is only showing an association, but it does NOT mean that drinking alcohol MAKES you more active.

  However, this Healthkicker writer misinterpreted the research data and ASSUMED that alcohol will improve your physical performance. She joked how she is going to bring beer to the gym next time instead of water. Sorry, but I can't express how idiotic that sounds in any sort of polite way.

  Correlational research does not prove that one thing causes another. There always may be another factor out there called a "confounding variable" or "spurious correlation", which means that drinking & fitness can be completely unrelated. Something else is causing drinking & fitness levels to increase. There could be many reasons, but I think the confounding variable is: VANITY.

  

  People who like to socially drink, probably also like to look GOOD right? Women who go to clubs dance it up anyway, but they also want to look hot in pictures don't they? So they exercise (and yes probably to burn off all the alcohol calories). But by no means would beer specifically enhance your performance magically nor is it the secret to being fit. My guess is that drinking and fitness are unrelated. They are just both affected by social and vanity reasons.

  Another example: Research found that as ice cream sales went up, more people drowned at the beach. Does eating ice cream cause drowning? Or is there another factor or confounding variable? The only types of research that can imply cause and effect are efficacy trials and interventions.

  In any website (not just Healthkicker) or any published research, there are always limitations. Research is never perfect. However, when you read newspaper articles or blogs, often they do not report these limitations to you! Or they may report one study's results, but not tell you that these results are quite contradictory with thousands of other study results. Healthkicker often publishes contradictory titles/topics to generate attention and controversy. This is UNETHICAL.

  It is fine that normal people submit posts to Healthkicker to be published. But the editors of Healthkicker should at least be more knowledgeable of simple research methods and nutrition knowledge so that they can choose useful and beneficial articles for their site. When they choose to publish crap that just confuses the public like that... it makes people like me, who studies nutrition/health and wants to be a certified health professional, stray away from submitting real health posts to Healthkicker because I don't want to be associated with such an unprofessional and inaccurate site.

  • 7:25 PM
  • 354 Views
  • 54 eProps
  • 30 Comments