Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
This weekend prior attending ISPOR 2023 in Copenhagen, I visited the Cisternerne Museum. The museum is a unique as it a (literal) underground art museum that is housed in a former water reservoir (and dripstone cave). While the museum currently had an interesting light-based art exhibit from South Korean artist Kimsooja, perhaps even more interesting…
At least that is according to an NBER working paper by DiSalvro and Hill (2023). The abstract is below: Previous research in the US has found negative health effects of contamination when it triggers regulatory violations. An important question is whether levels of contamination that do not trigger a health-based violation impact health. We study…
That is the title of an interesting review paper by Squires et al. 2023. The abstract is below: The effectiveness and cost of a public health intervention is dependent on complex human behaviors, yet health economic models typically make simplified assumptions about behavior, based on little theory or evidence. This paper reviews existing methods across…
Using 2001-2016 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys (MEPS) data from working adults, a paper by Cawley et al. (2021) find that: Adults with obesity in the United States compared with those with normal weight experienced higher annual medical care costs by $2,505 or 100%, with costs increasing significantly with class of obesity, from 68.4% for class…
That is the finding from a paper by Afoakwah et al. (2022) in JAMA Open. The authors use 2015-2019 data from the National Vital Statistics System, CDC WONDER, and the CDC’s Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) Application for 58 alcohol-related causes of death. They find that: During the 2015-2019 study period, of 694 660 mean deaths…
Not a surprise, but the study approach used by Kulaja et al. (2022) is interesting. They examine identical twins an examine how early adult exercise habits impact long term health outcomes. The abstract is below. …monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs discordant for health habits provide an interesting natural experiment. Twin pairs discordant for leisure‐time physical activity…
Antibiotic resistance is an increasing problem. My own research shows that when infections are antibiotic resistance, the risk of complications rises as does the cost to treat the infection. According to the CDC, antimicrobial resistance is a major public health problem: …killing at least 1.27 million people worldwide and associated with nearly 5 million deaths…
…well, at least fewer people are dying from natural disasters. This is from a recent New York Times article.
Soda taxes seem like a sensible tax. Most studies show that soda is not healthy and taxing something that leads to negative health benefits seems like a reasonable policy. A key question, however, is whether soda taxes–more formally known as taxes on sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs)–lead to a reduction in soda consumption and healthier eating…
What types of data capacity does the National Academies believe are needed to improve patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR), particularly with respect to health disparities. A report out this month (highlights) highlights some of the data capacity needs and also describes how U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for…