2007 Health Priorities

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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