A Comparison In Health Care

Today's topic is focused on the performance of the US health-care measures in comparison to 29 other countries. These countries are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, they are the Paris-based group of industrialized countries. For this particular blog the information is given in data and statistical viewing, (i.e., percentages). There are the highest rand lowest ranked percentages as well as the OECD average. The categories that are discussed are health resources, health spending, health care activities, risk factors and health status. Each one focuses on different topics, for example, under health status the topics are life expectancy and infant mortality. So there are five categories and nineteen topics.
As I read through each section, I found myself very surprised with most of the results. Of the nineteen topics, the US ranked the lowest in tobacco consumption with a population of ages 15 and over who are daily smokers. I was also surprised the US ranked the highest in total spending on health care.public spending on health and health spending per capita. I think I was more ever surprised because we spend so much money on health care, yet not a lot of citizens have health care. Based on this study, the US spends 16% on health care, where the OECD average is 8.8%. We are almost double that percentage, but yet we still have all these citizens who do not reap from these benefits. So this percentage is fairly high considering the fact that health care is only being provided to so many Americans.
The part I was least shocked about was the US ranking in the highest for obese population. This I believe to be 100% true. Americans have different diets from other countries. We have processed food, foods that we are consuming are high in fats, and oils that are not healthy. In some countries, for example Japan, they eat lots of grains and leafy foods. We also have higher calorie intakes than other countries. I also believe religion may play as a factor in these conditions. Many religions don't eat certain meats and processed foods. I think that obesity here in the US depends on your household and genetics. Some people are genetically created to be obese. Other people, however, eat out if depression and some people eat just because it's there. I kind of expected that topic for the US.
If I were a public health professional working for the CDC looking at these health measures, I feel that obese population in the US has the greatest future impact on public health. I think an intervention that could improve this measure/problem over the next few years and/or decades could possibly be reduction in processed foods. Although processed foods like canned goods save companies money, they are very unhealthy. I think if there was a case study on a group of obese people and a controlled study on obese people we could study what drives these eating habits. I guess we could stress the importance of how being obese is a health risk as well as a higher risk of dying. Researchers now say it has a lot to do with genetics, calorie intake, etc. which is true, but how could we as a country develop new eating habits? And not necessarily new eating habits, but a healthier lifestyle. Maybe there's a way we could reduce the usage of salt in food processing. At this moment I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's worth a try.
Until next time, stay healthy!
-Kiara