Alternative Medicines Gaining Popularity
Marketers may want to look at holistic marketing, considering that one in 3 Americans now turns to alternative healers, say pollsters. A recent Gallup survey has reported that visits to holistic healers now outnumber visits to conventional medical doctors.
According to the survey, a growing number of Americans wants physicians to pay heed to their spiritual needs - and even to incorporate prayer into treatment for the sick. More people also are turning to alternative forms of treatment, a number of polls show.
- 60 percent of Americans would like to discuss spirituality with their doctors.
- 40 percent would like their doctors to pray with them.
- 91 percent of doctors surveyed by the American Academy of Family Physicians say they seek the aid of patients' spiritual leaders, such as priests, rabbis, ministers, or faith healers.
- One in three Americans now turns to alternative healers.
- Visits to holistic healers outnumber visits to conventional doctors.
(Gallup, 800/987-7800)
More Elderly Are Becoming Self-Sufficient
America's elderly not only are living longer but more of them are staying healthy enough to enjoy it. A study shows a 14.5 percent decline in the rate of older people who are unable to care for themselves. A national medical survey taken periodically since 1982 shows that the percentage of people over age 65 who are disabled has dropped from 24.9 percent to 21.3 percent, a difference of about 1.2 million people.
"There is total life expectancy and then there is active life expectancy," said Kenneth G. Manton of Duke University. "It looks like both are improving at the same time," he said. Manton is the lead author of a survey study that was published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Long Term Care Surveys analyzed by the Manton team look at the rates of chronic disability among more than 20,000 people age 65 and older. (NAS, 202/334-2000)
Passenger Side Air Bags Misunderstood By Public
Most Americans mistakenly believe that air bags help more youngsters than they hurt, according to a survey released early this week. Nearly 60 percent of adults polled believe that passenger-side air bags are saving more children's lives than not, according to the Center for Risk Analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Air bags, which deploy at up to 200 mph, are credited with saving more than 1,600 adults. But there are no documented cases of a child being saved by an air bag, said center director John Graham.
Although survey participants recognized that air bags can save lives, they were unclear about the range of injuries that air bags can cause. Of the 38 children killed to date by air bags, all were sitting in the front passenger seat and most were decapitated, Graham said. Nine of those were infants. Of the 29 older children, 25 were not wearing seat belts and two were wearing lap belts without shoulder belts. At least 20 adults, mostly smaller women, have been killed by air bags.
The random poll of 1,000 Americans in 48 states was taken by telephone Feb. 28-March 2 by Market Facts Inc. of Chicago.
(Harvard School of Public Health 617/432-1000)