How do lifestyle factors and exposure to environmental substances affect our cancer risk?
MONDAY, Dec. 17 (HealthDay News) -- The cost of lost productivity among U.S. workers with cancer is equal to 20 percent of the nation's health care spending, according to a new study.
Researchers analyzed national data from 2004 to 2008 and found that more than 3.3 million American workers are diagnosed with cancer each year. This results in more than 33 million disability days per year, translating to $7.5 billion in lost productivity.
Based on the average wages of workers included in the study, disability costs due to cancer were equal to 20 percent of total health care spending, according to the study, which was published in the December issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Certain cancers, such as melanoma skin cancer and women's cancers, were associated with higher costs. For example, health care costs and hospitalizations were twice as high and disability days 55 percent higher for workers with breast cancer, compared to those with other cancers, according to a journal news release.
Nearly 85 percent of the workers with cancer were at companies with fewer than 500 employees. The workers at these companies also had higher rates of other health problems -- such as high blood pressure, depression and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease -- and were more likely to be uninsured than those at larger companies.
The true cost of lost productivity due to cancer is likely even higher than the disability days examined in this study, according to lead researcher Grant Skrepnek, of the University of Arizona Cancer Center, in Tucson, and colleagues.
They said more needs to be done to reduce the impact that cancer and its treatment has on productivity, such as supportive care programs to reduce cancer-related disability.
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about the costs of cancer.
SOURCE: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, news release, Dec. 7, 2012
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
derdaeh
Thu Dec 20, 2012 05:12 AM
The issue is, we are spending billions of dollars for cancer and other chronic illnesses. Has anyone stopped to think why this is occuring. I am a medical professional (R.N.). I practiced for 44 years in my profession. I now see that there is more to health than pills and powders. There is a movement inthis country amoung professional , drs. nurses and others to change the landscape of treatment to healing.
We live in a toxic world. For example, additives, genetically engineered food supply in corn, etc., herbicides, pestacides, Not to speak of the poisons found in the pills and powders that treat symptons. The cause of a chronic illness is not addressed. That is a big factor in the billions of money spent for health care.
Each person needs to take responsibility for their own health. Our approach to health should be an Integrative one. Do not depend on drs. and pills and powders as the only alternative. get out of your box and see what is healthy and good for you. Health is hinged on the choices we make. It is a known fact if we eat lots of sugars, fats and additive laden food products, we are poisoning our bodies. I am saying also that with the food we put in along with a pill for every SYMPTON THAT WE EXHIBIT, makes for disaster in our body's immune system. Pharmaceuticals, Physicians, and their influence promote illiness and cure rather than healing and prevention.
We poison our bodies further with alcohol, cigarettes and illicit drugs and wonder why we are spending so much money on health care.
Get real at the top starting with the Department of aGRICULTURE, THE SURGEON GENERAL AND THE PROFESSIONALS SUCH AS ME WHO HAS EMBRACED A MORE HEALTHY LIFE STYLE.
wE ARE WHAT WE EAT, LITERALLY. tHIS INFORMATION IS KEPT FROM THE GENERAL PUBLIC, SO ILLNESS CAN BE PROMOTED AND THUS THE VISCIOUS CYCLE CONTINUES.
FOODS PRODUCED TODAY HAVE ABOUT 1/10 THE NUTRITIVE VALUE AS IT DID 50 YEARS AGO. THE SEEDS , ETC HAVE MOVED FROM THE PURE PRODUCT TO HYBRIDS. NUTRITIVE VALUE HAS BECOME SECONDARY, SO PRODUCTION SEEMINGLY MAKES MORE FOOD, pEOPLE BECOME SICKER AND SICKER BECAUSE OUR BODIES ACTUALLY STARVE BECAUSE OF LITTLE OR NO NUTRITION.
FAST FOODS, CONVENIENCE OF PREPARED FROZEN DINNERS HAVE RUINED OUR MEALS. tHEY ARE FILLED WITH CARBS, FATS AND TONS OF SODIUM.
hOPING THINGS CAN CHANGE ONE PERSON AT A TIME. i HELP ANYONE WILLING TO LISTEN TO THE NEW INFORMATIN TO HELP THEM LIVE MORE HEALTHY.
CANCER IS A DISEASE CAUSED BY BREAKDOWN OF THE SYSTEMS OF THE BODY . ONE CANNOT GET ANYONE TO DISCUSS NUTRITION , EXCEPT FROM A CARBOHYDRATE, PROTEIN FAT APPROACH WITH MULTIVITAMINS. Supplements that build an immune system are not offered to make it stronger. In the end, no matter what meds, etc are given to a person. it is his/her immune system that fights the cancer.
Summary of all of this, it behooves everyone to get out there ask questions, and take a personal interest in what they are eating.
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