Hospital patients who refuse transfusion actually do better than other patients

Hospital patients who refuse transfusion actually do better than other patients(ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

3 points by Jan_jw 9 years ago | 3 comments

Jan_jw 9 years ago |

The report cites Clinical Professor James Isbister from the Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney. “Professor Isbister said Jehovah’s Witnesses were given better treatment by doctors trying to preserve their [the Witness patients’] blood. As a result they had better survival rates, and shorter hospital and intensive care stays than people who received blood transfusions during surgery,” reports the paper.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/surgeons-urged-to-avoi...

DrScump 9 years ago | |

I don't see how they could limit the conclusion to just blood transfusions. JWs tend to live a very healthy lifestyle in general (diet, activity, community).

maxerickson 9 years ago | | |

They briefly describe their statistics in the abstract:

We used propensity methods to match patient groups and parametric multiphase hazard methods to assess long-term survival.

Looking at the full text, they matched the Jehovah's Witnesses with patients that had similar health profiles prior to the procedure.

I am not qualified to say anything about whether what they did has any validity.