Healthcare Key Findings – May/June 2010
| Women’s Awareness of Heart Disease | Physicians and Drug Reps |
| Treating Preventable Chronic Diseases | Health As Corporate Responsibility |
Women’s Awareness of Heart Disease
Sixty percent of White women know that heart disease us the leading cause of death among women, compared to only 44% of Hispanics, 43% of Blacks and 34% of Asians.
While low, these numbers reflect improvements in awareness which doubled among Hispanic women and tripled among Black women between 1997 and 2009.
Still, Black women (32%) and Hispanic women (31%) are more likely to name breast cancer as women’s primary health concern, as are White women (24%).
Physicians and Drug Reps
Gaining access to US physicians became more difficult for pharmaceutical representatives in 2009, per AccessMonitor. Just over one-half (58%) of prescribers last year were “rep-accessible” (meaning that they met with at least 70% of the sales representatives who called on them). This is down 18% from the spring 2009 study showing that 71% of physicians met with at least 70% of pharmaceutical representatives.
Over this same time, the number of “rep-inaccessible” prescribers (those who saw fewer than 30% of the reps who called on them) increased to 9% from 6%. The report also labeled 33% of physicians as “rep-neutral” (they will see 31% to 69% of the pharmaceutical salesmen who call on them).
Treating Preventable Chronic Diseases
Nearly one-half of US adults have hypertension, high cholesterol, or diabetes, which are associated with cardiovascular disease, according to a recent study by Center for Disease Control’s National Center for Health Statistics. About 13% of adults have two of the conditions, and 3% have all three chronic diseases.
Health As Corporate Responsibility
An Edelman study which surveyed 15,000 people in 11 countries shows that health is emerging as a major corporate responsibility issue for companies of all kinds. Of those surveyed, 69% said that “business should be as engaged in maintaining and improving personal and public health as it is in maintaining and improving the environment.”
Survey respondents said they would be more willing to trust, do business with and even invest in companies that are engaged in health issues. Examples include making available products that promote health, communicating the health risks of their products, helping their workers become healthier, helping address obesity or contributing to global health.
Bullets
- According to the National Cattleman’s Beef Association, 50% of Americans choose beef when they are preparing a celebratory meal, compared to 18% who choose chicken, 17% pork and 15% fish.
- Some 46.0 million Americans smoked in 2008 (20.6% of the population), compared to 50.1 million in 1965 (42.4% of the population). The number of cigarettes they smoked was down to 13.3, compared to 18.3 in 1965.
- Four preventable risk factors for chronic diseases – obesity, elevated blood glucose, hypertension and smoking rates – reduce Americans’ life expectancy by about 4.9 years for men and 4.1 years for women.