Coins DIG

According to the report made by the U.S. health foundation, people living in the United States are left far behind other industrialized nations in terms of preventable deaths. The foundation's report is available in the January/February issue of the journal entitled Health Affairs. The New York-based Common Wealth fund was the one to provide financial aid to researchers' work.

The authors of the report discovered that U.S. showed little success in reducing deaths through effective health care in the period between 1997-1998 and 2002-2003. In case the United States registered the same success as the top ranking countries, authorities would have prevented 101,000 deaths per year. This data was provided by Ellen Nolte and Martin McKee, working at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The most effective ways of using health care to prevent deaths were registered by France, Japan and Australia. In order to arrive at the figures, the two researchers analyzed by comparison the trends in the period between 1997-1998 and 2002-2003 in deaths of people aged under 75. The death cause of these people was "considered amenable to health care." Researchers named this figure "amenable mortality" and analyzed the United States in comparison with 18 other industrialized countries.

According to Ellen Nolte and Martin McKee, amendable mortality's average estimates include 23% of all deaths in men aged under 75 and 32% in women. The figure decreased by an average of around 16 % in all of the countries throughout the study period.

Researchers revealed the United States registered the results of an "outliner." The report showed that there was only a 4% decline in health care amendable deaths.

"It is notable that all countries have improved substantially except the US," mentioned Nolte in a press statement.

The main cause of the low decline, as reported by the authors, is linked to the current political situation in the U.S.

"It is difficult to disregard the observation that the slow decline in US amenable mortality has coincided with an increase in the uninsured population, an issue that is now receiving renewed attention in several states and among presidential candidates from both parties," said the authors.

Commonwealth Fund Senior Vice President, Cathy Schoen, expressed worries regarding the results of the country.

"By focusing on deaths amenable to health care, Nolte and McKee strip out factors such as population and lifestyle differences that are often cited in response to international comparisons showing the US lagging in health outcomes. The fact that other countries are reducing these preventable deaths more rapidly, yet spending far less, indicates that policy, goals, and efforts to improve health systems make a difference," she said.

The detailed results of the study unveiled the following data:

Throughout 1997-1998 the United States was 15^th out of 19 industrialized countries in terms of amenable mortality.

By 2002-2003 the U.S. showed the worst results among the analyzed countries, having a rate of 109 amenable deaths to health care per 100,000 people. It's worth outlining that the 3 top positions were held by France at 64, Japan at 71, and Australia at 71 per 100,000.

Other industrialized countries mentioned in the report were: Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Both Nolte and McKee stated that amenable mortality represents a useful marker of health care performance. This is due to the fact that it considers improved care, such as public health initiatives.

Amendable mortality takes into consideration a list of conditions that a person can reasonably judge in order to be reactive to effective health care, thus avoiding early death. The list of conditions includes: appendicitis and high blood pressure, cervical and colon cancer and TB (which, when treated at early stages is not lethal).

"While no one country provides a perfect model of care, there are many lessons to be learned from the strategies at work abroad," stated Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis.