15 Comments

1. Tim:

That is odd (although I take exception to the report’s statement American incomes have remained flat compared to English incomes – facts do not support that assertion). Regardless, it will be interesting to see if future studies confirm these findings, and identify potential causes.

May 2, 2006 - 8:22 pm 2. Barry Dauphin:

I wonder how much of this may be due to Americans’ “appetites”. Adult onset diabetes is often associated with poor dietary habits (and obesity) as is blood pressure and heart problems. Too many low nutritional calories in and little to no exercise to burn that off and keep the body in shape. Upperclass Americans have good health care, but may not take care of themselves well enough. It may not be the stress per se, but how we cope with stress, especially in more passive or lounge-about ways. I’m not suggesting this accounts for everything (but a lot of people have gotten very big).

In many ways too many Americans act as if there are no consequences to various life-style choices, as if we are going to live forever. Taking care of one’s body in basic ways is an acknowledgement that life is finite. Sometimes we want to have our cake and eat it too. Maybe we live in Tantalizing Times.

May 2, 2006 - 9:21 pm 3. chuck:

I’d have to read the study itself before passing judgement. The article itself was kinda vaporous and not very informative. Jeez, some reporters need to learn how to, you know, report.

May 2, 2006 - 9:23 pm 4. Mark V.:

Look at it this way: we die younger, so we leave better looking corpses.

Besides, who wants to live long enough that they can’t wipe themselves.

May 3, 2006 - 1:15 am 5. XWL:

Given that this is self-reported, rather than the result of grabbing 5000 random men of the street in both nations, I think a different effect is at work.

I blame socialized medicine (and not in the way you might expect).

It’s far easier for a person of modest means to get to see a specialist in the United States than in the UK, though in the UK you are more likely to see a GP.

GPs are more likely to suggest lifestyle changes and leave it at that, rather than seek out more tests, with better equipment (as that equipment is expensive, and isn’t as readily available with their socialized medical system).

In the US, you far more likely to be referred to a specialist, and find out about every possible illness, so long as you have the coverage to pay for it.

So when reporting what they have, Americans are more likely to be aware of their own personal laundry list of complaints with excruciating detail, whereas a Brit may be more unhealthy, but not know it since they are less likely to see specialists or get diagnosed using the latest equipment.

It comes down to folks in the US knowing more of their ills, not being sicker.

If you can’t even get to see a doctor, how are you actually going to know that you have cancer, or diabetes, or hypertension?

(and Blair’s solution to the NHS crisis? Let them wear trainers)

May 3, 2006 - 3:09 am 6. Tollhouse:

TWL, that’s my read of it as well. Any study that relies on surveys triggers my skeptometer.

May 3, 2006 - 3:42 am 7. jmc:

The biggest red flag for me is that only 20% of the Univ of Michigan data set was used to draw conclusions about US health whereas the whole UK dataset was used for the UK.

Looks like cherry picking of the US data set to me.

May 3, 2006 - 5:18 am 8. Rick Z:

On reflection, it’s quite obvious to me that European males enjoy greater longevity because a disproportionate number of their vital organs are pickled and smoked — alcohol and tobacco being widely recognized as preservatives.

May 3, 2006 - 6:35 am 9. t-bird:

High-fructose corn syrup should be the difference.

The health care figures are just a symptom. You spend money on healthcare if you’re sick, not if you’re well.

May 3, 2006 - 7:52 am 10. tim maguire:

Maybe the years are shorter in Europe. We all know Europe’s had a lot more of them.

May 3, 2006 - 7:58 am 11. Wallace:

Being in the age group reported upon, I can add my own findings. The chief cause of stress in men between 55 and 64 is women between 55 and 64.

May 3, 2006 - 9:12 am 12. Rob:

This seems like a flawed way to do this study. Do American and British doctors diagnose “illness” the same? For example, would the exact same levels of colesterol in each country be diagnosed as a need for colesterol-lowering medicine?

Unless the study corrects for deviations like that, it’s comparing free-market medicine to socialized medicine and noting that you get a lot more of the latter than the former.

May 3, 2006 - 9:14 am 13. nittypig:

To reinforce XWL’s point:

Those who are males between 55 and 64 might be surprised by this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3463175.stm
That’s right, in the UK they don’t do routine PSA tests. Now the incidence of prostate cancer diagnoses in the US just about doubled when the routine PSA testing began in the 80’s.
(80,000 per year to 140,00 per year http://www.aafp.org/afp/980800ap/lefevre.html). Prostate cancer is something like 25% of all cancer (in men) in this age group.

So the absence of PSA testing alone in the UK for this age group means you can expect about a 10% change in the incidence of cancer in these population. The discrpancy in the reported results is 70%, but this is a huge effect from one little test.

Now I think it’s possible that the UK policy on PSA is better than the (de facto) US policy. The test has led to much improved cancer survival rates and cure rates, but the evidence that it’s significantly improved mortality is hard to come by. That said I’d personally have the PSA anyway – unlike mammograms there isn’t any real evidence of the test having negative effects on mortality.

May 3, 2006 - 1:25 pm 14. tcobb:

Unfortunately, I have given up believing in much of anything that comes out in the way of “studies” that come out in politicized fields. The results may very well be valid. I simply don’t know, but I’m not willing to put any faith at all in them, one way or the other. These days there are simply too many results of “studies” which are nothing more than agit-prop. If you pray frequently, you will live longer, or so one study says. “Relative poverty,” that is, knowing that someone else makes more money than you do, causes great distress and suffering says yet another study. There are no agendas there, not at all. Believe it and move along. . .

May 3, 2006 - 4:12 pm 15. Tresho:

A self-reported survey like the source was, is worthless.

May 4, 2006 - 5:15 pm

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