Worrisome statistics

Ever wonder what all those presidential pollsters do when it's not an election year? Based on today's health news, it looks like they spend their time asking Americans about their worries.

First, from CQ Politics, "Consumer Worry Grows on Health Care Access." The health care consumer confidence level (whatever that is) dropped more than 10 points among people 65 and older and 4 points in those 50-64 last month. The pollsters didn't bother to ask people whether they were worried that health care reform would pass or that it wouldn't, so it's a little hard to figure exactly what you could actually learn from these statistics.

On the other hand, people are not troubling themselves about swine flu, according to the Washington Post. "Only about one in eight Americans is very worried that swine flu will affect his or her family," the article reports. Six in eight are "not too worried" or "not at all worried," which we guess leaves that last guy sorta worried? The survey does teach us one thing. Despite the media's best efforts, it seems like the pandemic paranoia plan has been a failure.

Labels: health care reform, statistics, swine flu

More

posted by Stacey Butterfield at 2:39 PM   0 Comments

C'est la vie!

A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reveals that the French spend more time sleeping (8.5 hours a day on average) and eating (over two hours a day, nearly double the time spent by Americans or Canadians) than any of the OECD's 30 member countries. It's one of the more intriguing of the evolving social trends identified in the OECD's latest edition of "Society at a Glance."

Being well-rested and amply fed apparently confers some signficant health benefits as the French are also noted as having one of the longest average lifespans of the 30 countries--88.4 years on average for women, second only to the Japanese, and 77.3 for men, two years less than the hearty Swiss and Icelandic men. (With all that time spent in bed, it comes as little surprise that the French also have one of the highest fertility rates of countries studied.)

Other interesting findings from the report include that Norwegians have the most leisurely lifestyle, with just over a quarter of their time spent on leisure activities. By comparison, Mexicans spend the least amount of their time (16%) on leisurely pursuits. Unfortunately, most people seem to squander what free time they have watching TV, which accounts for nearly half of all leisure time in Mexico and Japan.

A telling statistic, considering the obesity epidemic, is the small amount of time devoted to exercise. Spain ranks highest, but hardly merits bragging rights with just 13% of leisure time spend on physical activities. The Turks may be the most well-adjusted, choosing to spend 35% of their free time entertaining friends.

Labels: obesity, sleep, statistics

More

posted by Janet Colwell at 9:54 AM   0 Comments

More surgical procedures occurring outside of hospitals

More and more surgical procedures are being performed in freestanding ambulatory centers as opposed to hospitals, according to the recently released 2006 National Survey of Ambulatory Surgery by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. The rate of visits to freestanding ambulatory surgery centers increased by 300% between 1996 and 2006, while at the same time the rate of visits to hospitals remained virtually unchanged.

Other notable findings from the survey include:

• Females had significantly more ambulatory surgery visits
  than men.
• Although the majority of visits had only one (56.3%) or two (28.5%) procedures performed, 2.6% had five or more procedures performed.
• Frequently performed procedures on ambulatory patients included endoscopy of large intestine, endoscopy of the small intestine, extraction of lens, injection of agent into spinal canal, and insertion of prosthetic lens.

There are many more interesting statistics in the CDC's Winter Quarterly Fact Sheet, which focuses on heart disease.

Labels: heart disease, hospital medicine, statistics, surgery

More

posted by Janet Colwell at 8:46 AM   0 Comments