Figures Don't Lie: Some Interesting Statistics on America's Health

It’s always interesting to note what the health trends are in America. For the most part, most of us feel only good trends will be seen, as don’t we live in the richest nation on Earth? But that is not true, especially for the poor, ethnic groups, or the young. Witness the statistics from a very recent report from the CDC cited below .

FETAL AND PERINATAL MORTALITY

Fetal deaths are twice as high among black women than white women. Hispanic women were 9% more likely to have their baby die before birth than white women. Although fetal death rates have declined slowly since 1990, some groups are at higher risk than others of their infants dying before birth. Those groups include teenagers, women ages 35 and up, unmarried women, and women giving birth to twins or higher-order multiple births.

(Source: National Vital Statistics System, "Fetal and Perinatal Mortality, United States: 2004")

HEALTH & NUTRITION

• Sixty-six percent of all persons in the U.S. reported they were in excellent or very good health. This figure is down slightly from the 69% figure reported during the period 1997-2001.

• Approximately 7.2% of the adult population in the U.S. reported they had been diagnosed with diabetes, an increase from 5.1% in 1997.

• The percentage of persons of all ages in the U.S. with asthma has remained stable over the past decade, ranging from 3.9% to 4.2% of the total population.

• Approximately 7.5% of persons over the age of 65 in the U.S. reported they needed help with their personal care. This is significantly higher than in 2006, when just over 6% of people over age 65 said they needed help with personal care. We can probably expect to see this figure increase even further in the future, with the graying of America.

(Source: National Health Interview Survey, “Early Release of Selected Estimates Based on Data from the January-March 2007 National Health Interview Survey")

HEALTH CARE

• A reported 14.2% of Americans, or 41.9 million people, did not have health insurance for at least 3 months. Another 52.8 million or 17.8% of the population didn't have health insurance for at least part of the previous year. Over 10% or 30 million people had been uninsured for at least a year. This certainly should motivate any politician currently running for office as to what a huge need is for the American people.

• Approximately 5.7% of the U.S. population was unable to receive necessary medical care due to cost. This figure has generally been increasing since 1998, when only 4.2% of people were unable to receive medical care due to cost.

• In early 2007, the percentage of people who had a usual place to go for medical care was 65.5%, a gradual decrease from 87.9% in 2003.

(Source: National Health Interview Survey, “Early Release of Selected Estimates Based on Data from the January-March 2007 National Health Interview Survey")

So, we not only saw a plurality of downward trends, we did not see any healthy or good trends. As the old adage says, figures don’t lie. These figures do not predict a healthy future for the greater majority of Americans.