The holidays are upon us. It’s a time to celebrate with loved ones, maybe even enjoy a well-earned vacation. But it is also a time that many of us gain weight, with children developing eating habits that could set them on a trajectory towards being overweight or obese. It is really crucial to help our…
Many people consider the randomized control trial the gold standard for assessing medical interventions. The US government has been a major funder of such trials, as illustrated in this picture which shows that the government funds just about as many RCTs as private industry: Despite so much US funding for RCTs, the location of such…
Ever wonder why your spouse eats too much even when you warn him or her not to eat too much? It could be because your admonitions put your spouse into a state of reactance, causing them to go against your advice just to prove their independence. Reactance is a state of mind that arises when…
A while back, former FDA Commissioner David Kessler published an article in the New England Journal depicting what cereal boxes would look like if they provided people with useful health information. Here is a sample: What do you think?
Often great science depends on keen observation. Darwin built his theory of evolution on detailed observations of everything from birds to beetles. Jane Goodall revolutionized our understanding of primate behavior by staring at chimpanzees for hours and days. But not just staring at them, noticing them. She saw things most observers would not have picked…
It used to be that hospitals billed Medicare for the services they provided, and Medicare – I know this is crazy! – simply paid the bills. Those days are rapidly receding into history. Soon, a significant chunk of hospital revenue will be at risk, under a series of Medicare pay-for-performance programs. The idea behind P4P…
Look at this trend in life expectancy, U.S. vs other developed countries, as a function of healthcare spending: Keep in mind, I DO NOT think life expectancy is a good way to judge the quality of healthcare or the efficiency of healthcare spending. But the graph should make us think about what we need to…
Some people look at the figure below, and say that too few insurance companies have too much of the market for Medicare Advantage (a program that allows Medicare recipients to get private coverage). But I look at it and think it looks like a pretty robust market: What do you think?
According to many conservative pundits, Obamacare is a job killer. Five days before Obama signed the law, in fact, speaker John Boehner declared that the president was pushing “his job killing government takeover of healthcare that will hurt small businesses.” Years after the law was passed, critics continued trumpeting this theme, Ted Cruz calling Obamacare “the biggest job-killer in…
The Journal of the Association for Consumer Research (yes, there is such a thing!) had an outstanding issue dedicated to eating behavior recently. Here is a picture from that issue worth sharing: