June 30, 2006
Emotional Stress of Diabetes in Minorities
A recent University of Michigan study argues that Hispanics experience higher emotional stress as a result of diabetes.
The emotional stress of dealing with diabetes tends to be more severe for Hispanics than African Americans, a new study shows, though psychological aspects are too often ignored for both groups.
"Treatment strategies, such as taking daily medications, pricking your finger to test your blood sugar levels, or injecting yourself with insulin can be very distressing for people, not to mention being confronted with your own mortality or at least as someone who has a chronic illness," said Michael Spencer, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and lead author on the study.
"The emotional response, especially for people who are deeply connected to their culture through food, can be quite difficult to deal with," Spencer said.
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Posted by: David Porter on June 30, 2006
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Category: Health Disparities; Health Disparities; Health Inequities; diabetes
June 27, 2006
Hospitals treat patients to five-star amenities
A Rockville, Maryland hospital is rebuilding with comfort and luxury in mind. One must wonder how this will affect health care costs in an area of the U.S. with a Cost-of-Living index that is 170% of the national average.
From MSBNC.com:
Walk past the free valet parking, past the woman at the front door welcoming visitors with an attentive smile and into the light-filled lobby, where soothing tunes waft from a baby grand piano and macchiatos are brewed at the coffee bar.
The dramatic entryway features seven large sheets of glass with water cascading from the ceiling. Upstairs, the amenities include massages, in-room Internet service, movies and video games.
Only the patients in wheelchairs give away that this is a hospital.
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Posted by: David Porter on June 27, 2006
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Category: Health Care; Health Disparities; Health Inequities; Hospitals
June 23, 2006
Hispanic Mothers Have Healthier Babies
South Florida researchers have published a study that argues some health disparity exists within minority groups.
Although having similar socioeconomic disadvantages Hispanic women have healthier babies.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:
An 11-year study by Dr. Victor Hugo Gonzalez-Quintero and colleagues at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine reviewed more than 80,000 deliveries at Jackson Memorial Hospital, and found Hispanic mothers had the lowest rate of low-birth-weight infants, 9 percent, compared with 18 percent for non-Hispanic black mothers and 11 percent for non-Hispanic white mothers.
The findings, published in The Journal of Reproductive Medicine, echo previous studies in border states such as Texas and California, where 70 percent of the Hispanic new moms in the studies were of Mexican heritage, Gonzalez-Quintero said.
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Posted by: David Porter on June 23, 2006
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Category: Health Disparities; Maternal Health
June 20, 2006
The Weaker Sex
Marianne J. Legato studies gender-specific medicine. She thinks that perhaps men deserve a little more attention.
Over the past two decades, we've radically revised how we conduct medical research and take care of our female patients. And we've made valuable discoveries about how gender helps determine vulnerability to illness and, ultimately, the timing and causes of death. But I now believe that we doctors and researchers may have focused too much on women.
Here are the highlights:
Even though there are more male than female embryos, there are more miscarriages of male fetuses.
Males are three to four times more likely than girls to have developmental disorders like autism and dyslexia; girls learn language earlier, develop richer vocabularies and even hear better than boys.
Girls demonstrate insight and judgment earlier in adolescence than boys, who are more impulsive and take more risks than their sisters.
Teenage boys are more likely to commit suicide than girls and are more likely to die violent deaths before adulthood.
Men die earlier than women.
Twice as many men as women die of coronary artery disease
Of the 10 most common infections, men are more likely to have serious encounters with seven of them.
The author calls for more research on men's health:
It's time to focus on the unique problems of men just the way we have learned to do with women. In 2004, the National Institutes of Health spent twice as much on studies done only on women as only on men. We are not devoting nearly enough money to men's health; worse yet, we may be spending those insufficient funds to answer exactly the wrong questions.
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Posted by: David Porter on June 20, 2006
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Category: Health Disparities; Health Inequities
June 13, 2006
Not everyone's growing up healthy
William G. Andrekopoulos, superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, writes about health disparity in his city.
A few highlights:
• Forty-one percent of children in Milwaukee live in poverty; triple the state total and fourth highest in the nation.
• Untreated tooth decay reaches epidemic proportions in the City of Milwaukee. In 2005, 572 Head Start children were screened, and 61% were found to have untreated decay with 10% needing urgent dental care.• The rate of lead poisoning among Wisconsin children is more than twice the national average. And in some Milwaukee neighborhoods, nearly 1 out of every 4 children have elevated lead levels. Lead poisoning has been associated with behavior problems, health problems and school performance and learning problems.
• In 2003, asthma surveillance in Milwaukee Public Schools indicated an asthma prevalence rate of at least 14% - higher than the prevalence rate range of 5.3% to 13% in the 22 states measured by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey.
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Posted by: David Porter on June 13, 2006
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Category: Health Disparities; inner-city; poverty
June 06, 2006
Youth obesity risk called highest among Latinos
CHICAGO -- US Latino youngsters are more likely to become obese by age 3 than black or white children, for reasons that cannot be explained by factors such as income and maternal education, a study said yesterday.
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Posted by: David Porter on June 06, 2006
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Category: Health Disparities; Health Disparities; Latino; obesity
June 01, 2006
Caps on Rx Drug Benefits Do Not Lower Insurers' Costs
From KaiserNetwork.org
Thursday, June 01, 2006Prescription Drugs
Caps on Rx Drug Benefits Do Not Lower Insurers' Costs, Can Result in Expensive Complications, Study of Medicare Beneficiaries Says
Medicare beneficiaries with caps on prescription drug coverage spend 31% less on medications than those without caps but are more likely than those without caps to skip doses of treatments, visit hospital emergency departments and die, according to a study published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Washington Post reports (Washington Post, 6/1).
For the study, researchers at Kaiser Permanente, the University of California-San Francisco and Harvard University examined the cost of medical care and clinical outcomes for 199,179 Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in a Kaiser Medicare+Choice plan in 2003. Researchers compared a group of 157,275 participants with a $1,000 annual cap on prescription drug coverage with a group of 41,904 participants without a cap (Hechinger, Wall Street Journal, 6/1). All participants had to make copayments of between $15 and $30 for brand-name prescription drugs and copays of $10 for generic medications (Washington Post, 6/1).
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Posted by: David Porter on June 01, 2006
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Category: Medicare Drug Plan; Prescription Costs
The Gap
Arnold Kling has a hypothesis as to why the U.S. lags behind other countries in health care per dollar spent. The Health Care Cost-Effectiveness Gap as it can be called.
"Perhaps the problem with the U.S. health care system is with the way that medicine is practiced. We favor expensive diagnostic procedures, specialist care, and surgeries, where costs are high and benefits tend to be low."
You can read more here.
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Posted by: David Porter on June 01, 2006
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Category: Health Care Costs; Health Disparities; Health Inequities