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Research shows it pays to take care of yourself
Regular gardening, walking or swimming and simple changes in the home could
significantly reduce health-related expenses for older Americans and the
federal government, a new University study suggests.
Sally C. Stearns, associate professor of health policy and administration at
the School of Public Health, and colleagues conducted the study.
"We found that certain activities were associated with a five to 10 percent
reduction in average monthly Medicare expenditures," Stearns said. "Monthly
expenditures were 7.4 percent less at 12 months among people who swam or walked
regularly vs. those who did not and 8.4 percent less at 48 months."
Regular gardeners saw a 5.6 percent reduction in such costs, she said.
A report on the findings appears in the October issue of the American Journal
of Public Health.
Besides Stearns, University authors are Shulamit L. Bernard, Sarah B. Fasick,
Robert Schwartz, Robert Kondrad and Gordon DeFriese, director of the Cecil G.
Sheps Center for Health Services Research. Marcia G. Ory of the National
Institute on Aging also helped with the work.
The group undertook the study to learn whether simple, everyday activities
designed to improve health and functioning could cut health care costs, Stearns
said. It involved analyzing data from 2,921 U.S. residents who were part of a
nationally representative survey of people over age 65 - the National Survey of
Self-Care and Aging. Researchers also analyzed Medicare claims data at 12 and
48 months after the initial survey.
Making homes safer by using non-skid rugs, installing hand rails in bathrooms
and making other modest changes resulted in a 10 percent monthly reduction in
Medicare costs after a year, researchers found. Personal medical monitoring of
blood pressure, urine and other health signs caused a 4.3 percent drop after 48
months.
"In contrast to these encouraging results, we also found that average monthly
expenditures increased by roughly 15 percent during the 12-month follow-up for
people who indicated that they had quit smoking when compared with people who
had never smoked," Stearns said. "This may be due to our inability to control
for the length of time since the decision to quit and the fact that some people
may have suffered substantial health impairment prior to quitting."
Several factors were unexpectedly associated with higher expenditures, and so
more detailed research is needed, she said. In the meantime, the evidence is
encouraging and suggests that people who actively seek to improve their health
will be healthier in the long run and incur fewer medical expenses later in
life.
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