Government
Canadians healthier than U.S. counterparts, study finds
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted June 12, 2006
Canadians fare far better than Americans when it comes to health, a new study by Harvard Medical School has shown. Research published in the July American Journal of Public Health finds that U.S. residents had higher rates of nearly every serious chronic disease. In the United States, 18% had hypertension compared with 14% of Canadians, while 21% of U.S. residents were obese compared with 15% of their northern neighbors.
One important exception to the health scores was in cigarette smoking. About 19% of Canadians smoke daily compared with 16.8% of U.S. residents. Also, Canadian women were less likely to have had a Pap smear in the last three years -- 79% compared with 88.9% of U.S. women.
But Canadians were 7% more likely to have a regular doctor and 19% less likely to have an unmet health need. U.S. patients were almost twice as likely to go without medicine due to cost, at 9.9% versus 5.1% in Canada. The findings come from a joint Canada-U.S. Survey of Health, the first such study conducted by the neighbors' official statistics agencies.
"These findings raise serious questions about what we're getting for the $2.1 trillion we're spending on health care this year," said David Himmelstein, MD, associate professor of medicine at Harvard and a co-author of the study. "We pay almost twice what Canada does for care, more than $6,000 for every American, yet Canadians are healthier and live two to three years longer."
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/06/12/gvbf0612.htm.