Graph: GDP/person and Life Expectancy
Watch the relationship between GDP/capita and Life Expectancy evolve over time: Gapminder World.
Category: HC Statistics
Why have disability rates decreased?
“Although the evidence was mixed for the 1980s and it is difficult to pinpoint when in the 1990s the decline began, during the mid- and late 1990s, the panel found consistent declines on the order of 0-2.5% per year for two commonly used measures in the disability literature: difficulty with daily activities and help with…
Health Care Spending
The California HealthCare Foundation has a great document summarizing many useful Health Care Cost Statistics (see full text or fact sheet). Some of the highlights: Health Care spending as a percentage of GDP is projected to grow 16.0% of GDP in 2006 to 19.5% of GDP in 2017. Average health care spending per capita was…
California Health Care Market
In her California Healthcare Foundation report, Katherine Wilson does a nice job describing the health insurance market in California. A little over health of individuals received health care from their employer or themselves (56%), a quarter of individuals receive health insurance through public programs, and 19% of Californians are uninsured (see chart). The private health…
Affordability Index
Everyone knows that health insurance is getting more and more expensive. But how can we measure how expensive it is? A paper by UC-San Diego professors Richard Kronick and Todd Gilmer creates an “affordability index” to measure this. The affordability index is equal to the per-capita, non-elderly health spending divided by the median income. In…
Are we winning the war on cancer?
Since the early 1980s, age-adjusted cancer mortality rates have been falling over time. Is this due to better screening, better treatment, or healthier behavioral factors? Is this progress cost-effective? Are we really winning the war on cancer? A paper by Culter (2008) tries to answer this question. First it is important to note that there…
Resource: State Coverage Initiatives Website
Wisconsin’s Medicaid plan covers children from 0-5 years old whose parents have income below 150% of the poverty line. Sixty percent of Massachusetts residence receive coverage through their employer compared to 53% nationwide. Forty-six percent of Californian firms with less than 50 employees offer health insurance compared to the national average of 43%. How did…
Leading causes of Chld Injury Deaths
Accidental injuries kill more than 2,000 children per day worldwide. The December 22, 2008 edition of Time lists the leading causes of accident-related childhood deaths worldwide: Other unintentional: 31.1% Road-traffic injuries: 22.3% Drowning: 16.8% Fire-related injuries: 9.1% Homicide: 5.8% Self-inflicted injuries: 4.4% Falls: 4.2% Poisoning: 3.9% War: 2.3%
World AIDS Day
There are now 33 million people living with HIV, including 2 million children. About 2.7 million people became newly infected with the virus each year. Combating this epidemic is one of the top priorities facing public health workers around the world. With limited resources, what strategy should be pursued? As of now, a vaccine…
Flu Surveillance
Google searches as a public health resource: Google.org has released Flu Trends, an online reporting tool for flu-related search activity. It’s long been theorized that Google’s search data would be useful to predict epidemics. This is the first time they’ve released a tool like this to the public. As they say on the main page: We have found a…