People Feel Less Healthy Despite Advances in Medicine
People Feel Less Healthy Despite Advances in Medicine – Contrary to expectations, advances in and access to medical care did not improve people’s perception of their own health.
Researchers at Ohio State University looked at large data sets to see how people rated their health between 1981 and 2007, and compared that with medical advances during that period in 28 countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Zheng measured expansion in three areas: medical investment, which includes health care spending per capita and total health employment; medical professionalization and specialization, and pharmaceutical industry.
The lead author, Hui Zheng, assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State, found that contrary to expectations, advances in and access to medical care did not improve people’s perception of their own health. In the US, for instance, the number of people reporting good health went down from 30% to 28%.
According to Zheng, possible reasons for people feeling less healthy are the facts that as medicine advances, more disease are discovered or even created, such as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), depression, and autism. Sometimes, advances lead to overdiagnosis and harm those who are really healthy. Also, as more medical care becomes available, people may have unrealistic expectations about their health.
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