|
2007 LIFE EXPECTANCY DECLINING IN SOME PARTS OF THE COUNTRY No one died during 2007 in accidents among larger scheduled U.S. airlines and smaller commuter aircraft, and deaths in private plane accidents dropped to 491, their lowest total in more than 40 years. THE LIST: ODDS OF DYING IN U.S. BY CAUSE OF DEATH U.S. HAS SECOND WORST NEWBORN BABY DEATH RATE IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD CNN - An estimated 2 million babies die within their first 24 hours each year worldwide and the United States has the second worst newborn mortality rate in the developed world, according to a new report. American babies are three times more likely to die in their first month as children born in Japan, and newborn mortality is 2.5 times higher in the United States than in Finland, Iceland or Norway, Save the Children researchers found. Only Latvia, with six deaths per 1,000 live births, has a higher death rate for newborns than the United States, which is tied near the bottom of industrialized nations with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with five deaths per 1,000 births. http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/05/08/mothers.index/index.html WASH CYCLE OFFERS some fascinating statistics on the dangers of various modes of transit based on fatalities per mile. As you can see from the figures for pedestrians, fatalities per hour might be a more accurate way of figuring it out, but it's still interesting: School Bus 0.02 2006. . . ABOUT TWO THIRDS OF Americans support doctor-assisted suicide, according to a Gallup poll. From 1993 to 2003, the U.S. population grew by 12 percent but emergency room visits grew by 27 percent, from 90 million to 114 million. In that same period, however, 425 emergency departments closed, along with about 700 hospitals and nearly 200,000 beds. - Washington Post WASHINGTON TIMES - The 12 percent of the U.S. population 65 and older accounted for one-third of all hospital admissions in 2003, federal data revealed Tuesday. . . The most common procedure performed on elderly patients was blood transfusion, according to the study, and 60 percent of all blood transfusions are performed on elderly patients. . . The most common reasons elderly patients were hospitalized were congestive heart failure, pneumonia, coronary atherosclerosis, cardiac dysrhythmias, and acute myocardial infarction or heart attack. When elderly patients do go to the hospital, they are five times likelier to die than younger patients, the agency said. http://washtimes.com/upi/20060516-125819-7266r.htm AP - America may be the world's superpower, but its survival rate for newborn babies ranks near the bottom among modern nations, better only than Latvia. Among 33 industrialized nations, the United States is tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with a death rate of nearly 5 per 1,000 babies, according to a new report. Latvia's rate is 6 per 1,000. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/health/3850137.html IN THE PAST 50 year, medicine and changes in lifestyle has increased the lifespan of a 65 year old man by only 3.7 years.  2005 JOHN BUNTIN, GOVERNING - Every year, an estimated 2 million Americans - approximately 5 percent of hospital patients - contract a hospital-acquired infection during the course of a hospital stay. Some 90,000 of them die - more than the number of people who die from breast cancer or automobile accidents. And the situation is getting worse. Since 1975, the infection rate has escalated by 36 percent. Average total cost for an 80-year-old American to live out the rest of his or her days on a luxury cruise ship: $230,497 Average cost to live them out in an assisted-living facility: $228,075 [Harper's Index] 2004 AMEDNEWS - Deaths among children younger than 1 year old increased for the first time in more than 40 years. The rate increased from 6.8 per 1,000 in 2001 to 7 per 1,000 in 2002.
MEXICAN BORN WORKERS 80% MORE LIKELY TO DIE ON JOB THAN AMERICAN BORN JUSTIN PRITCHARD, ASSOCIATED PRESS - An Associated Press report, based on an analysis of years of federal statistics, found that the death toll for Mexican-born workers has grown to the point that one dies in the United States every day on average. . . In the mid-1990s, Mexicans working in the United States were about 30 percent more likely to die than U.S.-born workers; in 2002, they were about 80 percent more likely. Experts agree it's a hard population to reach, and they often take the most hazardous jobs with the least safety training and equipment. STUDY DOCUMENTS INCREASE IN CALORIE CONSUMPTION ANAHAD O'CONNOR, NY TIMES - From 1971 to 2000, the study found, women increased their caloric intake by 22 percent, men by 7 percent. Much of the change was found to be due to an increase in the amount of carbohydrates we have been eating. . . And while the percentage of calories Americans get from fat, especially saturated fats, has decreased, the numbers might be deceiving. The actual amount of fat eaten daily has gone up. It just makes up a smaller percentage of the total caloric pie now that we are eating so many more carbs. . . . Cookies, pasta, soda and other carbohydrates appear to be mostly to blame. Among women, carbohydrates jumped from about 45 percent of the daily caloric intake to almost 52 percent. For men, they grew from 42 percent to 49 percent. According to the National Institutes of Health, the average person passes intestinal gas from 14 to 23 times a day and produces about 1 to 3 pints of the stuff. That may be more than you expect. Many people who believe that they are excessively gassy actually have perfectly ordinary amounts, says Steven Edmundowicz, MD, chief of endoscopy at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. [WEb MD] 2003 THE AMERICAN WAY OF DEATH AMERICA'S GROWING HYPOCHONDRIA - spurred by government, health industry, and the media - takes another leap as the feds declare nearly twice as many people as previously to have excessive blood pressure. Scaring people about their health is one of the country's most profitable industries, but it also drives up health costs something fierce. Here are a few facts, based on the most recent government statistics, to bear in mind when reading these stories: - The average life span of an American is 28 years longer than a century ago. - 75% of that improvement occurred between 1900 and 1950, the remaining 25% has been fairly equally distributed over the last 50 years. In short, medicine has done a fine job of improving America's longevity but it is slowing down. The hyping of health problems - and declaring tens of millions of people to be ill or health-impaired for one reason or another - reflects far more a cultural and commercial choice rather than a health one. And it is a choice far healthier for drug companies than for citizens. For example, in a study not well covered in the American media (perhaps because it challenges our health myths), WHO in 2000 ranked countries by "healthy life expectancy," based on the number of years lived in what might called "full health" - without disability or crippling illnesses. WHO reported: "Japanese have the longest healthy life expectancy of 74.5 years among 191 countries, versus less than 26 years for the lowest-ranking country of Sierra Leone. . . The rest of the top 10 nations are Australia, 73.2 years; France, 73.1; Sweden, 73.0; Spain, 72.8; Italy, 72.7; Greece, 72.5; Switzerland, 72.5; Monaco, 72.4; and Andorra, 72.3. . . "The United States rated 24th under this system, or an average of 70.0 years of healthy life for babies born in 1999. . . "The position of the United States is one of the major surprises of the new rating system," says Christopher Murray, M.D., Ph.D., Director of WHO's Global Program on Evidence for Health Policy. "Basically, you die earlier and spend more time disabled if you're an American rather than a member of most other advanced countries." The fascinating thing about this is that among the top-rated countries are ones like France who citizens take a decidedly less paranoiac view of health issues than Americans who are trained to worry about their every breath. But then what can you expect in a country where the vice president argues his fitness for public office by announcing that a doctor "watches me very carefully" 24 hours a day? - SAM SMITH POOR INCREASINGLY USE EMERGENCY ROOMS FOR HEALTH CARE JIM MCELHATTON, WASHINGTON TIMES - [A] D.C.-based think tank found that insured patients increasingly are using emergency rooms, even for non-urgent care, around the nation. Emergency room visits jumped to an average of 107.7 million a year in 2001 and 2000, up 16.3 percent from 1996 and 1997, and most of the increase is attributable to insured patients, the center reported this week. According to the center's study, privately insured patients' use of the emergency room rose 24.3 percent to 43.3 million visits over that six-year period. People covered by Medicare, the government insurance for the elderly, visited the ER 16 million times, a 10 percent increase. Visits by uninsured patients rose 10.3 percent to 18 million, while those by patients covered by Medicaid, the government program for the poor, were flat at 18.4 million. TEN MOST DANGEROUS JOBS IN AMERICA [Notably missing from the list are police officers who, it turns out, contrary to myth, live less dangerously than pizza deliverers] CNN - The mortality rate among lumbermen, 118 timber cutters per 100,000 workers, heads the list of the top 10 most dangerous jobs in America for 2002 put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and was more than 26 times that of the average U.S. worker. The fishing industry ran second with 71 fatalities per 100,000 workers, with drowning the most common cause of death. . . Flight risk Another often owner-operated job -- commercial pilot -- comes in third on the list of the country's most dangerous jobs, with 70 fatalities per 100,000 workers. . . Other highly dangerous jobs, including construction trades, pay high wages. Fourth on the fatality list, structural metal workers, the steel workers who build our skyscrapers and bridges, died at the rate of 58 per 100,000 in 2002, and earned an average of about $20 per hour. Sixth were roofers (37 per 100,000 and $16 per hour), and seventh were electrical power installers (32 per 100,000 and $21 per hour). Construction laborers suffered 28 fatal injuries per 100,000 last year (ninth), and were paid about $13.36 per hour. One top-10 surprise was the fifth place finisher -- driver-sales workers, which, according to a BLS spokesperson, includes pizza delivers, vending machine fillers, and the like. Again, these workers are often self employed. . . Farm workers come in eighth on the BLS list with 28 fatalities per 100,000. According to the Department of Agriculture farmhands earned roughly $8.50 an hour in 2002. HEALTH COSTS COMPARED - A comparison of health care costs has found that 31 cents of every dollar spent on health care in the United States pays administrative costs, nearly double the rate in Canada. Researchers who prepared the comparison said today that the United States wasted more money on health bureaucracy than it would cost to provide health care to the tens of millions of the uninsured. Americans spend $752 more per person per year than Canadians in administrative costs, investigators from Harvard and the Canadian Institute for Health Information found. WEIGHT Prevalence of obese children in USA ages 6 to 11: 1976-1980 7% Prevalence of obese children in USA ages 12 to 19: 1976-1980 5% THE LIST Switzerland: 58% HOW MANY POISONS IN YOUR BODY?  AP - Of the 5,341 teens killed in crashes in 2001, two-thirds were not wearing seat belts, according to the most recent statistics available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. . . Overall, about three-quarters of Americans say they wear seat belts, according to NHTSA surveys. Among those ages 16 to 24, 69 percent say they wear their seat belts - an improvement over years past. . . A classroom survey released earlier this year by car maker Volkswagen found that about a third of high school students deemed seat belt use "uncool." Another 30 percent said belts were uncomfortable or would wrinkle their clothing, while 20 percent said they thought seat belts were unnecessary on short trips. And 18 percent said a feeling of invincibility - "nothing will happen to me" - stopped them from regularly buckling up. CECI CONNOLLY, WASHINGTON POST - The number of Americans who lack health insurance climbed by 5.7 percent in 2002, to 43.6 million, the largest single increase in a decade, according to figures to be released today by the Census Bureau. Overall, 15.2 percent of Americans were uninsured last year, up from 14.6 percent in 2001. The largest jump came among people who had received health benefits through their jobs, as some firms laid off workers and others reduced coverage. Young adults and Latinos once again were the least likely to have medical coverage. Primarily because of government-run health programs, children and the elderly have the highest rates of coverage. ROB STEIN, WASHINGTON POST - The lifespan for Americans rose from 77 years in 2000 to 77.2 in 2001, continuing a long-term trend of Americans living longer, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The increase was for both men and women and for both whites and blacks. For men, life expectancy increased from 74.3 years in 2000 to 74.4 years in 2001. For women, it increased from 79.7 years to 79.8. For whites overall, the increase was one-tenth of a year, to 77.7 years in 2001; for blacks, it was three-tenths of a year, to 72.2. At the same time, the age-adjusted death rate hit an all-time low, dropping from 869 deaths per 100,000 people in 2000 to 855 in 2001, according to an annual report from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. HEART DISEASE - The states with the highest age-adjusted death rates from heart disease are Mississippi (188.1 per 100,000 population), West Virginia (160.7), and Kentucky (159.5); the lowest are Utah (95.2), Colorado (94.0), and Minnesota (93.2). The District of Columbia (155.8), Louisiana (146.6), and Kentucky (145.7) have the highest age-adjusted death rates from cancer, while Colorado (101.4), Hawaii (95.5), and Utah (84.9) have the lowest. The age-adjusted suicide death rate ranges from highs in Nevada (22) and Alaska (21.3) to lows in the District of Columbia (7.0) and New Jersey (6.6). The age-adjusted firearms death rate ranges from highs in the District of Columbia (56.1) and Louisiana (22.7) to lows in Rhode Island (4.6) and Massachusetts (3.5). The number of tuberculosis cases reported per 100,000 population is highest in the District of Columbia (20.8) and Hawaii (14.1) and lowest in Vermont (1.0) and Wyoming (0.4). HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS - The number of hospital admissions per 1,000 population in the mainland U.S. is highest in the District of Columbia (243.6) and Alabama (158.4) and lowest in Vermont (88.8) and Washington (85.1). EMERGENCY ROOM ADMISSIONS - The rate of emergency room visits per 1,000 population is highest in the District of Columbia (588.6), West Virginia (548), and Mississippi (528.1) and lowest in Hawaii (248.3), Colorado (244.5), and South Dakota (237.5). The highest percentage of persons who did not see a doctor due to cost is in Arizona (25.3%), Arkansas (19%), and West Virginia (15.5%) and lowest in Nebraska (6.4%), Iowa (6.3%), and Wisconsin (6.2%). PRESCRIPTIONS - The average number of retail prescription drugs sold per resident in the mainland U.S. is highest in Tennessee (12.6) and West Virginia (12.1) and lowest in California (6.2) and New Mexico (6.6). The percentage of women age 50 years and over who obtained a mammogram is highest in the District of Columbia (83.6%) and Rhode Island (83.1%) and lowest in Mississippi (64.7%) and Arkansas (55.9%). The number of Medicare home health visits per person served ranges from highs of 161 in Louisiana and 146 in Oklahoma to lows of 33 in Oregon and 32 in Washington. HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE - The percentage of uninsured persons under age 65 is highest in Arizona (27.7%) and Texas (26.6%) and lowest in Hawaii (9.5%) and Wisconsin (8.9%). The percentage of persons without health insurance among those with incomes in the bottom half of all U.S. family incomes ranges from highs of 38.3 percent in Arizona and 38.2 percent in Texas to lows of 16.1 percent in Wisconsin and 11.9 percent in Hawaii. The percentage of persons under age 65 with private employer coverage ranges from 77.2 percent in Wisconsin, 74.1 percent in Indiana, and 74 percent in Connecticut to 55 percent in Arizona, 54.7 percent in Arkansas, and 49.1 percent in New Mexico. The percentage of low-income children (less than 200% of the federal poverty level) with employer-sponsored health insurance ranges from a high of 56.7 percent in Utah to a low of 20.2 percent in New Mexico. The percentage of uninsured low-income children (less than 200% of the federal poverty level) is highest in Arizona (39.2%), Nevada (36.2%), and Texas (35.6%) and lowest in Wisconsin (10.1%), Hawaii (10.0%) and Vermont (10.0%). MEDICAID - Enrollment of poor persons in the federal and state Medicaid program varies widely across the states. The percentage of poor persons under age 65 with incomes less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level covered by Medicaid is highest in the District of Columbia (61.4%), Minnesota (60.2%), and Tennessee (59.4%) and lowest in Colorado (29.5%), South Dakota (27.9%), and Nevada (26.1%). MANAGED CARE - Enrollment in HMOs is highest in Massachusetts (51.6%), Delaware (48.8%), and California (48.8%), and lowest in Vermont and Alaska, where there are no enrollees. States with the most HMOs are Texas (43), Florida (41), and Ohio (39); those with the fewest are Wyoming (1), Vermont (0), and Alaska (0). Twenty states have consumer protections that give managed care enrollees a chance to be heard quickly by an independent reviewer if their request for treatment is denied by their HMO. HEALTH EXPENDITURES AND FINANCING - Medicare payments per beneficiary range from a high of $7,548 in the District of Columbia to a low of $3,650 in North Dakota. Medicaid payments per child and non-elderly adult range in the mainland U.S. from a high of $2,072 in the District of Columbia to a low of $950 in Mississippi. Medicaid payments per elderly and disabled person range from a high of $18,587 in Connecticut to a low of $5,589 in Alabama. HEALTH RESOURCES AVAILABLE - Louisiana (24%) and Mississippi (21.7%) have the highest percentage of their populations underserved by primary care physicians, while Hawaii (2.9%) and Maryland (2.2%) have the lowest. Over 50 percent of all nursing facility beds are certified for both Medicare and Medicaid patients in only ten states. One-quarter or fewer of all beds are certified for both Medicare and Medicaid patients in 15 states. The states with the highest number of generalist physicians per 100,000 population are North Dakota (52), Minnesota (49), and South Dakota (46); states with the lowest number are New Jersey (19). AARP 2002 THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL and Prevention reported in 1999 that West Virginia had the highest rate of toothlessness in the nation, with 47.9 percent of people older than 65 having lost all their teeth. NEW HEALTH STATISTICS from the CDC show these death trends over the past 50 years: Heart disease down 64% Life expectancy at 65 years
for males up 3.5 years WASHINGTON TIMES - Reports of new infections with the HIV virus, along with cases of AIDS, have risen in the United States for the first time in a decade, U.S. health officials said yesterday. In the 25 states that reported new diagnoses of HIV infection, there was an 8 percent increase in the number of cases between 1999 and 2001. GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES accounted for 60% of total U.S. health care costs in 1999, according to a Harvard Medical School study published today in the journal Health Affairs. At $2,604 per capita, government spending was the highest of any nation - including those with national health insurance. Indeed, government health spending in the U.S. exceeded total health spending (government plus private) in every other country except Switzerland. (Estimated total U.S. health spending for 2002 is $5,427 per capita, with government's share being $3,245.). The study analyzed data on spending for government health programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans Administration ($548.7 billion in 1999), as well as two categories that have previously been overlooked in calculating government health costs: - Expenditures to buy private insurance for government employees - e.g. members of Congress, firemen and school teachers - at a cost of $65.6 billion in 1999. - Tax subsidies for private coverage - which totaled $109.6 billion in 1999. Most of these tax subsidies go to the wealthiest Americans. The study found that government's share of expenditures has nearly doubled since 1965, with tax subsidies and public employee benefit costs increasing fastest. Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a study author and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard, noted: "We pay the world's highest health care taxes. But much of the money is squandered. The wealthy get tax breaks. And HMOs and drug companies pocket billions in profits at the taxpayers' expense. But politicians claim we can't afford universal coverage. Every other developed nation has national health insurance. We already pay for it, but we don't get it." PHYSICIANS FOR A NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM A 1995-98 study of the 60 largest U.S. cities found a median infant death rate of 13.9 deaths per 1,000 live births for blacks, compared with 6.4 for whites and 5.9 for Hispanics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Depending on the city, black infants were 1.4 to 4.8 times as likely as white infants to die in their first year, the CDC said. ||| NEAL R. PIERCE, STATE LINE -- Last year the surgeon general reported that only 25 percent of U.S. high school students participate in daily physical education, down from 42 percent in the early 1990s. Massachusetts and Idaho are among states that have just recently eliminated major physical education requirements. And studies show that only 10 percent of children now walk or bike to school, compared to a majority a generation ago. WASHINGTON POST - The U.S. abortion rate dropped significantly during the second half of the 1990s, particularly among teenagers, and experts attribute the decline to AIDS fears and better awareness of contraception. The rate fell 11 percent between 1994 and 2000, from about 24 abortions for every 1,000 women of childbearing age to 21, the nonprofit Alan Guttmacher Institute reported. The rate among girls ages 15 to 18 declined 39 percent, from 24 abortions per 1,000 girls to 15. At the same time, researchers were surprised by a sharp increase in abortions among poorer women, or those who earn less than twice the federal poverty level of about $17,000 for a family of four. For women below the poverty line, the abortion rate rose 25 percent. It climbed 23 percent among women making less than twice that level. THE LIST 1 in 126 of heart disease [Center for Disease Control; Michael L. Rothschild, professor emeritus, University of Wisconsin] 86,800 skateboarders were treated in hospital emergency rooms in 2000, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Almost 100,000 scooter riders were treated last year. [San Diego Times-Union] DOCTORS AND RESEARCHERS with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found several primary connections between suburban sprawl and public health including: 1. Increases in vehicle miles traveled have resulted in an increase in air pollution and in the incidence of respiratory diseases. Results of a study by CDCP during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, when vehicular traffic was kept at artificially low levels by city authorities, showed that the peak daily ozone concentrations decreased 28% and peak weekday morning traffic counts dropped 23% percent; at the same time the number of asthma emergency medical events dropped 42% percent. 2. Sedentary living habits contribute to poor health outcomes because they are a significant factor in the incidence of overweight and obesity. Researchers have estimated that as many as 300,000 premature chronic disease deaths each year are due to obesity. 3. Lack of pedestrian friendly features in a community becomes a factor leading to illness and even death. In 1997 and 1998, 13 percent of all traffic fatalities - 10,696 people - were pedestrians. 4. Residential development can pose other health hazards such as the threat to water quality posed by sprawling uncontrolled growth. MORE    KAISER FOUNDATION - Cardiovascular disease is the
number one cause of death and disability among American women.
African American women are at particular risk for CVD, in part
due to their higher prevalence of risk factors such as obesity
and hypertension. - Arthritis and osteoporosis, common among the elderly, are more prevalent in women than in men. An estimated one in two women over the age of 50 will have an osteoporosis-related fracture, compared to one in eight men of the same age. - Women now account for 23% of all new cases of AIDS, up from 7% in 1986. African American and Hispanic women are at highest risk - Birth rates among unmarried women have increased, rising from 29.4/1,000 unmarried women in 1980 to 44.3/1,000 in 1998. - About one in five women will experience a major depressive episode in her lifetime, over 1.5 times the rate seen in men. - Women have a lower lifetime prevalence of drug and alcohol abuse than men (6.4% vs. 12.5% for drug abuse; 3.5% vs. 5.4% for alcohol abuse). RANKED BY THE UNITED HEALTH FOUNDATION
Smoking kills about 30 times as many Americans as do drugs, and alcohol kills about six times as many. [CDC] · Pharmaceutical
industry's profit margin in 1999: 18.6%. -- Canada's per
capita health care cost: $2,815 NATIONAL POST Economics Affects The Poor's
Life-Span A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, reports that the poor have a death rate 2.77 times higher than that of other Americans -- even when smoking, drinking alcohol, overeating and lack of exercise are accounted for. These factors are responsible for about 13% of the low income death rate. Even Americans making between $10,000 and $29,000 had a death rate 2.14 higher than those earning $30,000 plus after subtracting the effect of harmful habits. And while the poor having greater smoking and weight problems, contrary to common perception they drink less than wealthier groups of Americans. Sixty percent of the poor don't drink at all compared to 31% of those earning $30,000 or more. The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. - 1998 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
