Guest guest Posted March 21, 2007 Report Share Posted March 21, 2007 Blank January 29, 2007 2007 Health Priorities A new survey commissioned by the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) finds that Americans strongly favor increased federal funding to improve the nation’s public health system. • Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of Americans believe federal efforts to research and prevent disease should be increased. • For the fourth consecutive year, cancer ranks as Americans’ top health concern, followed by heart disease, chemical terrorism, obesity, and diabetes. • Americans’ concern about emergency health threats, including biological and chemical terrorism and food contamination, has grown dramatically in the past year. • More than half (53 percent) of Americans feel the country is unprepared for a pandemic flu outbreak, and 45 percent of Americans believe the country is unprepared to respond to a biological terrorism attack. The poll was conducted between January 18th and 22nd, 2007 among 1,015 adults, ages 18 and older. These findings only include the subset of 856 registered voters responding to the survey.1 1 This survey of 1015 adults is subject to a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent. The margin of error for the 856 registered voters is +/- 3.4 percent. Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe efforts to research and prevent disease should be increased. In 2005, the federal government spent 93 percent of health dollars on diagnosis and treatment of disease, and seven percent on researching causes and preventing disease. Sixty-five percent of Americans believe that the federal government should increase disease research and prevention funding. Four-in-10 people feel the government should spend “much more” on these efforts. (See Appendix C for more details about different demographic group support for increased funding). • Sixty-eight percent of African Americans and 69 percent of Hispanics believe the government should spend more money on prevention and research of disease. Fifty-three percent of African Americans and 51 percent of Hispanics feel the government needs to spend “much more.” • Majorities of Americans across the ideological spectrum want more government funding for disease research and prevention. Seventy-seven percent of liberals, 72 percent of moderates, and 53 percent of conservatives believe that the federal government should be spending more on research and prevention of diseases. • Women are more likely to support spending more on research and prevention. Seven-in-10 women express support for a bigger investment in researching and preventing diseases, compared to 59 percent of men. • Voters in the Northeast are most supportive of additional spending.2 Nearly threequarters of Northeasterners (74 percent) support increased government funding, and at least 60 percent of citizens in the Central, Southern, and Western regions also support additional spending on research and prevention of diseases. Cancer, obesity-related chronic diseases, and chemical terrorism top list of health concerns For the fourth year of conducting this poll, Americans rank cancer as the health risk they are most concerned about. Eighty-four percent of Americans list cancer as a health problem that concerns them, with 27 percent responding that it is their top concern. Heart disease was the second highest concern, with 80 percent responding that it is a serious concern and 14 percent citing it as their top concern. Sixty-eight percent list diabetes as a serious concern, with 8 percent ranking it as their top concern. Overall, these rankings demonstrate that Americans continue to be most concerned about diseases that impact people’s daily lives. Among the respondents who indicated that government should spend more on research and prevention of disease, chronic illnesses topped their list of priorities. Three-quarters (75 percent) of those who believe that government should be spending more on researching and preventing disease want more investment focused on cancer (with 52 percent responding they would support “much more” of an investment), and 72 percent expressed their support for increased investment in the research and prevention of chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes. URL: http://healthyamericans.org/reports/files/2007HealthPriorities.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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