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The Conversation
The Conversation
Brooke Nickel, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, University of Sydney

We analysed almost 1,000 social media posts about 5 popular medical tests. Most were utterly misleading

C-R-V/Shutterstock

When Kim Kardashian posted on Instagram about having had a full-body MRI, she enthused that the test can be “life saving”, detecting diseases in the earliest stages before symptoms arise.

What Kardashian neglected to say was there’s no evidence this expensive scan can bring benefits for healthy people. She also didn’t mention it can carry harms including unnecessary diagnoses and inappropriate treatments.

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