September 30th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in Research
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Married men who have no children have a 17% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease after the age of 50 than men with two or more children. But whether that’s because of a physical cause, a sociological effect or self-selection (sick people may choose not to have kids) isn’t known.
To determine if the number of kids predicts cardiovascular death, researchers used data from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study of nearly 135,000 men ages 50 to 71 without prior cardiovascular disease who were followed-up for an average of 10 years. That study mailed 3.5 million questionnaires from 1995 through 1996 to AARP members living in California, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Louisiana or in Atlanta or Detroit. Nearly 586,000 people returned the questionnaire, which underwent follow-up surveys in 1996-1997 and 2004-2006. Results appeared online Sept. 26 in the journal Human reproduction.
Almost all (92%) men had Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
June 26th, 2011 by Stanley Feld, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
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McKinsey Quarterly has reported its survey concluding there will be a radical restructuring of employer-sponsored health benefits (ESI) as a result of President Obama’s following the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Healthcare insurance rates have already skyrocketed as a result of anticipating the conditions of Obama care. President Obama has been powerless to do anything about the increases.
Thirty percent (30%) of companies providing ESI to their employees will drop healthcare insurance coverage once Obama care takes effect in 2014.
The survey included 1300 employers providing ESI across industries, geographies, and employer sizes. Other surveys have found that as we get closer to 2014, President Obama’s Healthcare Reform Act will provoke a much greater number of employers to drop employer sponsored healthcare insurance.
The penalty for not providing healthcare insurance coverage is much cheaper than providing healthcare coverage.
McKinsey’s survey suggests that when more employers become aware of the new economic and social incentives embedded in Obamacare the percentage of employers dropping ESI will Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Repairing the Healthcare System*
May 22nd, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in Announcements
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Aloha from the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Meeting in Honolulu! The weather is gorgeous here and it’s been a great meeting. Yesterday, I heard Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak, and today, I listened to “Conversations” with Lorraine Bracco–also known as Dr. Melfi from The Sopranos. The beach is nice, too, and Clink has been scuba diving. Should I tell you she just learned to swim this past winter? She is amazing!
In a few hours, we will be giving our workshop, The Accessible Psychiatry Project: The Public Face of Psychiatry in New Media. We are telling the audience that the survey we did was not validated, was not statistically analyzed, and is not real science. Mostly, it was about how cool it is that we can even do this at all (ask questions, interact with readers, have an impact). I thought I’d share the survey results with everyone here. If you took the survey, thank you, again.
702 responses Summary See complete responses Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
April 15th, 2011 by RamonaBatesMD in Opinion, Research
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I’ve spent some time thinking about this survey. I couldn’t find any better information on the survey than the press release from the University of the West of England (UWE). Perhaps in the future it will be published in a journal for better review.
The survey was apparently done by the new eating disorder charity The Succeed Foundation in partnership with the University of the West of England (UWE). The editor’s notes indicate 320 women (ages 18 – 65 years, average age 24.49) studying at 20 British universities completed The Succeed Foundation Body Image Survey in March 2011.
Notably, the survey found that 30% of women would trade at least one year of their life to achieve their ideal body weight and shape. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
April 11th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, News, Opinion
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A version of this op-ed was published on March 15, 2010 in USA Today:
If you recently saw a doctor, you might subsequently receive a survey in the mail asking whether your physician was friendly, spent enough time with you, or showed the appropriate level of concern for your medical issues.
Read the rest of article here: Op-ed: Patient satisfaction doesn’t mean the best medical care
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
