Too many Americans neglect health care, survey shows

Most Americans get physical checkups and screening tests but are less disciplined in their day-to-day approach to healthy living, says a Gallup survey.

"The medical profession has done its job," George H. Gallup Jr., co-chairman of The Gallup Organization, a polling firm based in Princeton, N.J., said this week, "but the public hasn't because they are still indulging in habits that are self-destructive."But the survey highlighted that most people are conscious of the need for good health care.

About eight in 10 Americans said they have seen physicians in the past year, with teenagers and older adults more likely to see doctors, according to the survey. Almost two-thirds of Americans have been to the dentist in the past year.

More than nine of 10 people age 65 and older had their cholesterol checked at some point, and 70 percent of the respondents have had it checked at some point. Fewer than half those who have had cholesterol checked know their levels, but more than one in four of the respondents has changed diet to lower blood cholesterol within the past two years, the survey indicated.

Three of four women said they examined their breasts for signs of cancer within the past year.

The survey, called America's Health Report Card 1998, sampled 3,140 people from May 7 through June 12 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, slightly larger for subgroups.

The survey suggested that almost half of Americans 12 and older are overweight as measured by strict "body mass index" guidelines unveiled this summer by the National Institutes of Health. One in seven individuals was obese under the guidelines, according to the poll.

Being overweight puts people at risk for diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses. The BMI formula measures weight in relation to a person's height. Someone who is 5 feet, 3 inches and 141 pounds, for example, has a BMI of 25 and thus is labeled overweight. Someone who is 5-feet-10 and 207 pounds has a BMI of 30 and is obese.

To determine BMI, multiply weight in pounds by 703, then divide that result by height in inches squared.

The Gallup study suggested that six out of 10 adult Americans from age 25 to 64 participate in strenuous exercise, but only about one in three over age 65 gets even moderate exercise. Among those with multiple sexual partners, only a little more than half, 56 percent, used a condom the last time they had sexual intercourse.

About a fourth of those surveyed reported smoking cigarettes, a pipe or cigars, and the habit was highest, 36 percent, among adults from ages 18 to 24. About four in 10 reported drinking some type of alcoholic beverage in the last month, including one out of eight teenagers.

About 20 percent of the people in the survey said they were hindered by some type of impairment or health problem, a condition more often found among older adults and those in low-income households.

This was the first such "report card" commissioned by the American Medical Association in partnership with The George H. Gallup International Institute.

Gallup, chairman of the institute, said the survey should provide a baseline for watching future health care trends.