04.30.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:20 am by ceo
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Staying healthy and happy is a struggle for about half of Americans, according to a massive survey that attempts to measure the nation's general welfare, much like the Dow Jones Industrial Average portrays the health of the stock market.
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, based on interviews of more than 100,000 people so far, shows that 47 percent of Americans are struggling and 4 percent are suffering. Forty-nine percent of respondents are reported to be thriving based on a personal assessment of how they feel about their lives at the time of the survey, and where they think they'll be in five years.
Pollsters asked people to imagine where they would put themselves on a ladder with 10 steps. Those said they were on step seven or above are listed as thriving. Those at four or below are suffering. In between are the strugglers.
Those who are thriving tend to have higher incomes, more education and less illness. Those who are suffering have trouble meeting their basic needs, including food, shelter and medical care, said James Harter, Gallup's chief scientist for workplace management and well-being.
Just as the U.S is not No. 1 when it comes to health measures, it also is not No. 1 in well-being, he said. For example, 83 percent of the residents of Denmark are classified as thriving versus 1 percent who are suffering.
Researchers hope the findings, which can be broken down by occupation, commute time and exercise habits, will help employers better understand what they can do to create happier and healthier workers.
Eventually, they said, the data could even be used to compare health and happiness by ZIP code, creating quite a measuring stick for future generations of politicians.
"There's never been anything quite like it," said Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner in economic sciences.
"You're getting details about what it's like to live in this country," said Kahneman, a Princeton University professor brought in by Gallup to discuss the potential uses for the data. "What is the experience of the weekend? What is the experience of the weekday for someone who is sick and has to go to work in the morning? We are going to learn a great deal about what are the determinants of actual happiness."
Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that the United States invests more on health care than any country, but that its health care system ranks 37th.
"That doesn't sound like we're getting the best value from the investment we're making," Gerberding said. "That fundamentally is something we as a nation are waking up to."
The research has implications for employers who want to stay on top of problems confronting a particular work force.
The survey shows that manufacturing or transportation workers are most likely to report a negative work environment - 29 percent. Those who report a negative work environment tend to miss more days of work. A worker with up to three chronic conditions and a negative work environment will miss an average of 6.6 more days of work a year than a similar worker who likes his or her work environment, the survey found.
The survey said a negative work environment includes job dissatisfaction, an authoritative boss, lack of trust and lack of focus on individual strengths.
Among all workers, two-thirds reported one or more chronic diseases or recurring conditions. More than a quarter reported back or neck problems; 23 percent cited high cholesterol and 22 percent had high blood pressure. More than one in 10 said they suffered from depression.
Nearly two-thirds of workers reported body mass indexes indicating they could be obese or overweight.
Healthways, which works with companies to improve the health of workers, partnered with Gallup to pay for the survey. The cost of maintaining the index is projected at more than $20 million annually. More than 1,000 are being interviewed daily.
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On the Net:
Gallup: http://www.gallup.com
Healthways: http://www.healthways.com
© 2008 The Associated Press.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 1:20 am by ceo
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The widow of a man who died after receiving contaminated heparin told a congressional subcommittee Tuesday "we have a false sense of security" in a land where people expect to be protected and safe.
Brushing away tears, Johanna Marie Staples of Toledo, Ohio, said her husband, Dennis, was looking forward to his 60th birthday party on the last day of his life.
Contaminated heparin, a blood thinner used in dialysis and other treatments, has been connected to 81 deaths and 785 severe allergic reactions, said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
The heparin, made from ingredients imported from China, has been recalled by Baxter International and the Food and Drug Administration has blocked imports from the Chinese company.
The FDA found the drug was contaminated with oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, which mimics heparin and thus was not detected in routine testing, Stupak noted.
When - and how - it was introduced into the product has not yet been determined.
"FDA's working hypothesis is that this was intentional contamination, but this is not yet proven," Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, told the panel in her prepared testimony.
Staples told the subcommittee that her husband was looking forward to an evening birthday party at a steakhouse with friends after receiving his dialysis treatment.
But during the treatment he become unresponsive, stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest, she said. Paramedics rushed him to a nearby hospital but he never regained consciousness, she said.
Colleen Hubley, a dialysis nurse whose husband, Randy, died after receiving heparin, told of a desperate struggle to save his life with cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
"We were certain that no matter what came our way we could handle it together," she said. "Despite our hope, this man died while I did CPR on him, powerless to save him."
When her husband came home from a dialysis treatment he suffered diarrhea, abdominal pain and had problems breathing, she said.
At 2 a.m., she said, she awoke to him clutching his abdomen and grabbing his chest, unable to breathe. She did CPR and called paramedics who struggled to get a breathing tube in his throat because of swelling.
"I watched my husband and my best friend slip away before my eyes," she said. "I never thought the lifesaving medication we were relying on could be contaminated."
Randy Hubley's death came just a month after that of his mother, Bonnie, under the same circumstances.
Leroy Hubley, dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief, told of losing both wife and son, adding: "I want to know if my daughter, Dawn, and millions of others who continue to receive dialysis are safe."
He told, too, of Bonnie suffering diarrhea, pain and trouble breathing and being rushed to a hospital where doctors recommended removal of her breathing tube to end her suffering.
"Christmas music played in the background as each one of us said our goodbyes," said a shaking Leroy Hubley. "And the nightmare returned only weeks later when my son, Randy, started dialysis at the same clinic."
The Hubleys also reside in the Toledo area.
The FDA's Woodcock told the subcommittee that in recent years major changes have occurred in where drugs are made.
For example, in 2007 the agency received only about 150 applications for approval to make generic drugs in the United States compared to nearly 500 from China and more than 400 from India, she said.
"Great vigilance is required to maintain" drug safety, she said.
Chinese officials have argued that the contaminant could not be the root cause of the allergic reactions and suggested that problem may have occurred in the United States.
Baxter president Robert L. Parkinson Jr., said in testimony prepared for the subcommittee that his company is "greatly concerned that our heparin product appears to be the target of a deliberate adulteration scheme."
"The complexity of the global drug supply chain creates new and emerging risks that call for new ways of thinking about, identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, and that resting on old standards - even ones that have worked for decades - is no longer enough," Parkinson said.
David Strunce, president of Scientific Protein Laboratories, said in testimony that worldwide problem with contaminated heparin cannot be traced to how heparin was processed at the Changzhou SPL factory in China which supplied the material to Baxter. His company holds a majority interest in Changzhou SPL.
Rather, Strunce said, there appears to be deliberate and widespread contamination of the crude heparin supply in China affecting many manufacturers.
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On the Net:
FDA: http://www.fda.gov
Energy and Commerce Committee: http://energycommerce.house.gov/
© 2008 The Associated Press.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 1:20 am by ceo
SINGAPORE (AP) -- Singapore recorded 422 new HIV infections last year, the highest number in a single year since records started in 1985, the city-state of 4.5 million people said Tuesday.
More than half of the new cases already had late-stage HIV infections when they were diagnosed, as happened in previous years, the Health Ministry said. It urged people who are at high risk of contracting the virus to go for tests.
"There is thus an urgent need for persons who engage in high risk behavior such as unprotected casual sex, sex with prostitutes, and intravenous drug abuse to go for regular HIV testing," the ministry's Web site said in an update of the HIV/AIDS situation in the prosperous Southeast Asian country.
Ninety-three percent of the new infections were among men and 95 percent were transmitted through sex, it said.
Nearly two-thirds of the sexual transmissions occurred during heterosexual sex, the update said.
It said the number of intravenous transmissions fell last year to seven, half of the number recorded in 2006.
The new cases bring the total number of known HIV-infected Singaporeans to 3,482 as of the end of last year, the ministry said. More than 1,100 of them have died.
The ministry also noted that Parliament last week passed an amendment to the law to tighten regulations on HIV transmissions.
The existing law penalized anyone who knows he or she is infected with HIV but is found to have failed to tell a partner about it before sex. The amendment includes individuals "who have reason to believe" that they have been exposed to a significant risk of contracting HIV or AIDS.
The amendment says those individuals must take "reasonable precautions" - such as using condoms or being tested - to protect their sexual partners. Otherwise, they must inform their partner of the risk of contracting HIV from them and leave it to them to accept the risk if they wish. If the partner accepts, no legal offense is committed.
A person found guilty of not informing a partner or of failing to take such precautions faces a maximum penalty of a 50,000 Singapore dollar ($36,735) fine and 10 years' imprisonment.
© 2008 The Associated Press.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 1:20 am by ceo
NEW YORK (AP) -- Costs for nursing homes, assisted living facilities and some in-home care services have increased for a fifth consecutive year, and could rise further if a shortage of long-term care workers isn't resolved, a new study indicates.
The survey by Genworth Financial Inc., released Tuesday, comes as baby boomers are approaching retirement amid worries that they haven't saved enough to cover day-to-day expenses as well as long-term medical care costs.
The study found that the average annual cost for a private room in a nursing home rose to $76,460, or $209 per day, this year, a 17 percent increase over the $65,185 cost in 2004. Nursing home costs this year ranged from $515 per day in Alaska to $125 per day in Louisiana, the study found.
The cost for assisted living facilities, meanwhile, averaged $36,090 nationally, up 25 percent from $28,763 in 2004. Costs ranged from $4,921 per month in New Jersey to $1,981 per month in Arkansas, the study said.
In-home care costs for non-Medicare certified workers were essentially flat, at a national average hourly rate of $18 for homemaker services and $19 for home health aide services. But the cost of a Medicare-certified home health aide rose to an average $38 an hour, up at a 7 percent annual growth rate over the past four years.
The study by Genworth Financial, which is based in Richmond, Va., looked at data from more than 10,000 nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home care providers nationwide. The company sells insurance, including long-term care products.
Buck Stinson, president of Genworth Financial's long-term care insurance business, said the results indicate that "the expense of just a few years of long-term care in a facility or at home can very quickly wipe out a lifetime of savings."
He noted, for example, that an elderly person typically spends 2- 1/2 years in a nursing home, or more than $190,000 on average at today's costs.
He said that individuals, especially the baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964, "need to do more thinking about their own retirement plan and how they're going to age."
Stinson also said there was a need to find ways to "recruit close to 200,000 people a year to keep pace with the aging demographic." A companion Genworth Financial study found that low wages and benefits as well as a lack of training and career-advancement potential have made it difficult to attract workers to the elder care industry and retain them.
The study for the first time also looked at adult day health care and found an average daily cost of $59. That would work out to about $15,000 a year for participation five days a week.
Adult day health care, sometimes at a community-based center, can monitor medication, provide therapy and ensure that people with cognitive problems are watched and don't wander off.
Stinson said these centers were proving popular with families who have elderly parents living in their homes and need daytime support so they can continue jobs, take care of children or just get a break from caregiving.
"It's a convenient outlet ... and obviously less expensive than a full-time facility, so it makes economic sense," Stinson said.
Consumers can compare the costs of various care options on a state-by state basis at Genworth Financial's Web site, http://www.genworth.com/costofcare .
© 2008 The Associated Press.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 1:20 am by ceo
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Regulators ended last week and started this one by rejecting two potential blockbuster cholesterol drugs, leaving three drugmakers reeling and Wall Street wondering if tougher approval standards are here.
Merck surprised investors late Monday when it said the Food and Drug Administration did not approve its cholesterol pill Cordaptive. The company was counting on the approval to help replace flagging sales of its older cholesterol drugs, Vytorin and Zocor.
The agency dealt a similar blow to Genzyme Corp. and Isis Pharmaceuticals on Friday, saying the companies must conduct additional studies of their cholesterol drug, mipomersen, that will delay its launch for several years.
There was no delaying the impact on Wall Street. On Tuesday, shares of Merck & Co. Inc. fell 9 percent while Isis fell 4 percent in afternoon trading. And analysts saw the FDA's back-to-back refusals as a potential signal of a more worrisome trend: tougher approval standards for cholesterol medications. The already-crowded market for the pills was the largest in the U.S. last year, with total sales of $18.4 billion, according to IMS Health.
WBB Securities analyst Steve Brozak said FDA has increasingly rejected drugs that don't offer a clear advantage over older medications.
"The party for all these 'me-too' drugs has been over for at least two years," Brozak said. "It's just that these pharmaceutical companies are only now beginning to realize it."
FDA demanded more data from drugmaker Wyeth four times before approving its antidepressant Pristiq, a follow-up to an older drug Effexor. And last year, regulators flatly rejected potential blockbusters to treat obesity and arthritis from Sanofi-Aventis and Merck.
FDA's unexpected rejections come amid a debate over the benefits of newer cholesterol drugs, triggered by a failed study of Merck and Schering Plough's blockbuster Vytorin. The drug, which had 2007 sales of $5 billion, combines Merck's older, cholesterol-lowering drug Zocor with Schering's Zetia.
Results released by the companies in January showed that while the combination did lower cholesterol levels, it was no better at reducing fatty plaque than Zocor alone, which is now available as a low-cost generic. Experts called on doctors to return to the older, more established class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, which includes Zocor and Pfizer's Lipitor.
And lawmakers questioned whether FDA's "lower is better" criterion for approving cholesterol drugs should be re-examined. FDA has long approved drugs based on their ability to lower so-called bad cholesterol, which is widely believed to reduce heart attack and death.
But the Vytorin results suggest the connection between higher cholesterol and negative outcomes may not be as concrete as initially thought.
While agency staff have said they are not changing the standards for approving cholesterol drugs, analysts say their actions suggest a shift.
Genzyme and Isis on Friday said FDA would not grant their drug broad approval based solely on lower cholesterol levels. Instead the companies said they will have to conduct a large-scale study tracking whether patients actually live longer or have fewer heart problems while taking their drug.
Cowen and Co. analyst Eric Schmidt said that while FDA officially hasn't revised its guidelines, "changes appear to be happening behind the scenes before they're announced in the open."
Schmidt downgraded shares of Isis to "Neutral" from "Outperform," saying the additional study requirement would hurt the company's outlook in the near-term.
"The good news is we'll get a good idea of whether these newer cholesterol drugs actually improve outcomes for patients," Schmidt said. "The bad news is it will take longer for patients to get access to them."
© 2008 The Associated Press.
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