The United States sees about 85,000 alcohol-related deaths a year, making pricing and regulation of the industry an important public health issue with broad consequences.
The impact to human life of alcohol consumption is well documented — in the United States an estimated 79,000 lives are lost annually due to excessive drinking. As terrible as the loss of life is, the full price that society pays is even greater — health care costs rise, property is damaged, productivity is lost, and more.
Estimates of the prevalence of childhood depression range from 1% to 2% of all children in the United States, and for adolescents this figure may be as high as 8%. While public awareness of this issue is growing, the long-term economic costs of childhood psychological trauma are largely unknown.
A 2009 study by the Harvard Medical School and the Cambridge Health Alliance, “Health Insurance and Mortality in U.S. Adults,” looks at the relationship between having health insurance and death rates. The study used data from the CDC’s third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The survey was conducted between 1988 and 1994 and involved more than 33,000 people.
In the United States, approximately 40% to 45% of prison inmates have a history of substance abuse. Without effective treatment, many are likely to re-offend after release. The period of incarceration is thus a critical opportunity to implement correctional interventions.
The fact that smoking has direct negative effects on health is well documented. Smoking could also adversely impact the health of others in a family through substitution effects within a household’s expenditures.
In the United States, about 19% of children and adolescents are obese. Without any change in eating and lifestyle patterns, overweight children are more likely to grow up overweight, which contributes to the odds of their becoming diabetic later in life.
When choosing a doctor, patients are rarely afforded the opportunity to view the doctor’s records of performance over his or her clinical history. Rather, they make decisions based on the information that is available to them, such as education, gender, nationality, publicly available malpractice history, or board certification.
Obesity presents serious health risks at all ages, but is particularly worrisome in children and youth. In addition to having a greater chance of becoming obese in adulthood, obese children and adolescents are also more likely to contract cardiovascular diseases compared to their peers.
