Headlines: April 5, 2010
by Meg Larkin
In policy news, the controversial health care legislation includes many health and prevention initiatives that have been overlooked. The law includes requirements that chain restaurants post the amount of calories in their menu items, eliminates co-pays for preventive screenings, and gives free annual physicals to Medicare beneficiaries. The measures are aimed at lowering the costs of preventable chronic disease and reducing the impact of chronic disease on Americans. In the fight over the bill as a whole, it went largely unnoticed that many of the preventive care provisions had broad bipartisan support. But, the legislation also contains money for communities to build more play spaces to encourage children to be more active, which was widely criticized by Republicans as pork-barrel spending.
In other wellness news, New York State’s Health Commissioner is pushing for a one-cent-per-ounce tax on sugary beverages. Health Commissioner Dr. Richard F. Daines is concerned that sugary drinks are under-priced and over-consumed, contributing to the country’s obesity epidemic. According to the New York Times, “The state budget office estimates such a tax would raise $1 billion a year when fully in effect, and reduce consumption by 15 percent, an estimate based, Dr. Daines says, on industry price elasticity models.” However, it currently appears unlikely that the New York State Government will adopt the measure. The State Legislature is facing a lot of pressure from beverage manufacturers and store owners who say that the tax would force job cuts. Additionally, an article in this week’s Health Affairs has found that taxes on sugary beverages may have a limited effect on children’s consumption. The study, by the Rand Corporation, found that while the tax does reduce consumption among some low-income populations, it was not successful at reducing consumption across the board.
In public health news, the tuberculosis rate in the United States has dropped more than 10 percent in 2009. It is unclear what has contributed to the drop in new cases, and there is a risk that some cases have been under-reported. The case-count still needs to be verified, but “[t]he 2009 rate was 3.8 cases per 100,000 people, down from 4.2 the year before, according to results from the National TB Surveillance System reported in the March 19 issue of the centers’ Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.”
Finally, GlaxoSmithKline’s prostate cancer drug Avodart may put men at a higher risk of heart failure. The drug was being studied for use as a cancer preventive among men with high PSA scores. According to the Boston Globe, “The study involved 6,700 men with high scores from PSA blood tests but no sign of cancer on biopsy. They were given Avodart or dummy pills and new biopsies four years later. Prostate cancer was found in 25 percent of those on dummy pills and 20 percent of those on Avodart.” An unexpected finding was that while only 16 men on the placebo developed heart failure, 30 men on Avodart had heart failure. The Globe reported that the drug is currently used for urological problems, and doctors haven’t reported a higher incidence of heart problems with that use.
Meg Larkin is a second year law student at Boston University. Please feel free to email her with any comments, questions, suggestions, or concerns.
