editorials

As presidential debates heat up on ways to strengthen U.S. health care, big fixes will be proposed that could revolutionize Americans' access to health insurance and good care. In the meantime, however, what if someone were to tell you that increasing the use of just five regular health services could save more than 100,000 lives each year -- including, perhaps, yours? Well, someone just did.

As a letter on this page today points out, glitzy technology and things new and expensive tend to get people excited -- and the excitement usually focuses on acute care. But a new study recently released by Partnership for Prevention, funded in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, points to the dramatic life-saving potential of routine, discrete preventive acts. Making them happen more often will require both patient initiative and new policies by health providers -- policies to ensure that all patients are offered certain services or advised to take certain actions.

Some of those actions are as simple as popping one aspirin a day to prevent heart disease. The report concludes that if 90 percent of adults followed this simple daily practice, 45,000 more lives would be saved each year. Another big one: The report notes that if 90 percent of smokers were advised by a doctor or other health professional to stop and were given additional assistance and/or medication to help them do so, an estimated 42,000 fewer people would die each year. Yet only 28 percent of smokers are given that help.

The report, which can be viewed at www.prevent.org, lists several other preventive actions that would have significant impact if their use were to increase, including annual flu vaccination, regular colorectal cancer screening for people aged 50 and above, and breast-cancer screening for women 40 or older. Individuals can make sure all these actions are taken -- if they're aware of their importance. But many are not; the study found significant disparities among ethnic groups in the way such services are used.

Glitz is great, but daily prevention could reduce the need for acute care; it should be higher in the minds of both individual patients and the health organizations and doctors who care for them.