Healthcare Key Findings May/June 2012
| Interest in Organic Foods | |
| Prescription Medicine Spending | |
| Teenagers and Diabetes |
Interest in Organic Foods
Some 58% of American adults when given a choice, prefer to eat organic foods. Interest in organic foods decreases with age: organic food is preferred by 63% of those younger than 35, 61% of those ages 35-64 and 45% of those age 65 and older.
Why Americans Prefer Organic Foods (among those who do)
Source: ThomsonReuters.com
Prescription Medicine Spending
According to IMS Health, spending on prescription drugs rose only 0.5% between 2010 and 2011 to reach $320 billion. This is despite the fact that 2011 saw the highest number of new medicine introductions in the last 10 years.
One reason for the modest spending growth includes a higher use of generics: During 2011, generic spending grew by $5.6 billion, reaching 80% of dispensed prescriptions. However, the main reason was a drop in use of prescription drugs by seniors, who are typically the largest consumers of the products. Patients ages 65 and older cut their use of prescription drugs by 3.1%. Medicines for controlling blood pressure experienced the greatest drop.
The study showed this decline accompanied a decrease in physician office visits and non-emergency room hospital admissions, which is where those drugs are most often prescribed.
Drug spending did rise for young adults ages 19 to 25. This corresponded with an Affordable Care Act provision allowing them to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans until they turn 26 years old.
Source: NPR.org
Teenagers and Diabetes
Nearly one in four American adolescents (23%) may be on the verge of developing Type 2 diabetes or could already be diabetic. This reflects a significant jump in the disease’s prevalence among children ages 12 to 19 since a decade ago, when it was estimated that only 9% were at risk for or had diabetes.
Two-thirds of U.S. adolescents (ages 12 to 19) are of normal weight, 16% are overweight, and another 18% are obese; these percentages stayed fairly constant between 1999 and 2008. Factors contributing to weight issues include the rising use of computer and mobile devices making youth more inactive plus the growth of minority ethnic and racial groups who have higher rates of diagnosed diabetes than whites.
Another troubling development is the recent finding that diabetes progresses more quickly in children than in adults and is more difficult to treat.
Source: NYTimes.com
Bullets
- The average prescription drug label lists 70 potential side effects.
- Some 12% of women say they crave pickles when they are pregnant.
- Just under one-half (49%) of Americans’ total food budget is spent on restaurants, compared to 25% in 1955.