Saturday, September 15, 2007
More comparative health care stats
The Wall Street Journal weighs in on the Lancet study (unnamed in the publication, but that's surely the same study)
I'll see if I can get a hold of the original publication and flesh out the details like I did before. But, caveat lector...
Update
I think this is the RM article. Upon reading it, it confirms the cited stats, but the actual thrust of the article is that the reporting standards across countries are inconsistent with the authors suggest that the US methodology may be overstating results. FYI, here's the sorted average 5-yr survival for lung cancer as self-reported by the countries:
US 16%
Austria 14.7
France 14.5
Spain 12.6
Germany 10.65
Northern Ireland 9.85
Denmark 6
England/Wales 6
Scotland 5.85
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Last month, the largest ever international survey of cancer survival rates showed that in the U.S., women have a 63% chance of living at least five years after diagnosis, and men have a 66% chance -- the highest survival rates in the world. These figures reflect the care available to all Americans, not just those with private health coverage. In Great Britain, which has had a government-run universal health-care system for half a century, the figures were 53% for women and 45% for men, near the bottom of the 23 countries surveyed.They also mention a study from Respiratory Medicine:
A 2006 study in the journal Respiratory Medicine showed that lung cancer
patients in the U.S. have the best chance of surviving five years -- about 16%.
Patients in Austria and France fare almost as well, and patients in the United
Kingdom do much worse with only 5% living five years.
I'll see if I can get a hold of the original publication and flesh out the details like I did before. But, caveat lector...
Update
I think this is the RM article. Upon reading it, it confirms the cited stats, but the actual thrust of the article is that the reporting standards across countries are inconsistent with the authors suggest that the US methodology may be overstating results. FYI, here's the sorted average 5-yr survival for lung cancer as self-reported by the countries:
US 16%
Austria 14.7
France 14.5
Spain 12.6
Germany 10.65
Northern Ireland 9.85
Denmark 6
England/Wales 6
Scotland 5.85
Labels: science
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