Want to enjoy your golden years to the fullest? Then have a positive outlook, keep stress low, do not smoke, but have a drink now and then. Oh, also make at least $30,000 a year and have no chronic health issues.
According to a study, that is the magic formula to thriving in old age. The findings come from a decade-long survey of 2,432 older Canadians about their quality of life. By the end of the 10 years included in the study, only 8% of the respondents were considered thrivers. Meanwhile, 47% were considered as not having a high quality of life or excellent health. 36% had died and 9% were institutionalized.
Source: Health Day News, November 6, 2008
Medicare beneficiaries with heart failure have many more doctor visits and take more medications than those without heart failure.
Researchers based their conclusion on an analysis of data on 173,000 Medicare beneficiaries. The overall average age of the beneficiaries was 70.7 years, while the average age for those with heart failure was between 76 and 77 years.
The analysis found that:
- Patients with severe heart failure saw an average of 23 different Medicare providers a year, compared with about 7.9 providers for typical Medicare beneficiaries.
- Those with mild heart failure saw an average of 15.9 providers a year and those with moderate heart failure saw an average of 18.6 providers a year.
- Patients with all stage of heart failure received an average of 61 prescriptions annually, compared with 29 for a typical beneficiary.
- About 26% of office visits for heart failure were to internal medicine specialists and about 20% were to family practice physicians. Visits to cardiologists for those with mild, moderate and severe heart failure increased as heart failure worsened and were 16%, 18% and 20%, respectively.
- About 46% of severe heart failure patients had diabetes, 46% had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or other respiratory diseases and about 32% had kidney disease.
- In 2005, beneficiaries with heart failure accounted for 37% of all Medicare spending and almost 50% of all hospital inpatient costs. Typical inpatient costs for a severe heart failure patient were about $24,000 a year, compared to about $3,000 for a typical beneficiary.
Robert Page, study lead author and an associate professor of clinical pharmacy and physical medicine said, “These findings highlight the complexity of treating heart failure patients who often have serious co-morbidities and stress the importance of developing comprehensive and coordinated care.”
Source: Business Wire, November 12, 2008
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The Bush administration is tightening up on some outpatient Medcaid payments to hospitals, seemingly in conflict with post-election goals of President-elect Barack Obama.
Included in the services scheduled for reduction in Medicaid payments are some types of outpatient care, such as dental and vision treatment. State governments, which administer Medicaid payments to hospitals, rely heavily on federal funding. Medicaid provides financing for medical services to poor people.
The notice of new Medicaid rules was published and was justified by the Bush administration as being necessary because the old regulations on outpatient service were ambiguous and could cause the states to claim excessive payments.
Reaction to the new regulations was swift. John W. Bluford III, the president of Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City, Mo., said, “This is a disaster for safety-net institutions like ours. The new rule forces us to consider reducing some outpatient services like dental and vision care. State and local government cannot pick up these costs. If anything, we expect to see additional cuts at the state level.”
At his post-election news conference, Obama said he was in favor of federal assistance to state and local governments in order to avoid worker layoffs and local tax increases.
Source: Health Day News, November 9, 2008
Getting less than 7.5 hours of sleep a night may increase the risk of heart disease in elderly people with high blood pressure. Japanese researchers tracked the sleep of 1,255 people of average age of 70.4 years and followed their health for about 50 months. During the follow-up, there were 99 cardiovascular disease events such as stroke, heart attack and sudden cardiac death.
People who slept less than 7.5 hours a night had the highest risk. Dr. Kazuo Eguchi, of Jichi Medical University in Tochigi, said, “The incidence of cardiovascular disease was 2.4 per 100 person-years in subjects with less than 7.5 hours of sleep and 1.8 per 100 person-years in subjects with longer sleep duration.” They also found that participants with shorter sleep duration plus an overnight increase in blood pressure had a higher incidence of heart disease than those who slept longer and had no overnight increase in blood pressure. However, the incidence of cardiovascular disease in patients who had more sleep compared to those who had less sleep was similar in those who did not experience an overnight increase in blood pressure.
In conclusion, shorter duration of sleep is a predictor of incident cardiovascular disease in elderly individuals with hypertension particularly when it occurs with elevated night-time blood pressure. Physicians should inquire about sleep duration in the risk assessment of patients with hypertension.
Reflecting changing lifestyles, people are getting less sleep in modern societies. Adequate sleep is essential for preventing health problems such as obesity and diabetes, as well as several risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Source: Associated Press, November 10, 2008
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