JAMA Editorial, Commentary Discuss Effect of Medical Spending on Health Outcomes, Preventive Health Efforts

• "Spending on Medical Care: More Is Better?" Journal of the American Medical Association: The JAMA editorial by Gerard Anderson and Kalipso Chalkidou of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health discusses studies that have examined whether increased spending on health care leads to better health outcomes. According to Anderson and Chalkidou, studies generally have not found a link between health spending levels and health outcomes, and factors such as education among women, average per capita income and degree of income inequality may better explain cross-national variation in overall health status than the level of health spending (Anderson/Chalkidou, JAMA, 5/28).
  
  
• "The Power of Prevention and What It Requires," JAMA: In the commentary, Steven Woolf of the departments of family medicine, and epidemiology and community health at Virginia Commonwealth University discusses preventive health efforts as a "more direct strategy" for reducing spending and chronic diseases. Woolf also analyzes criticism of preventive measures and writes that "[t]urmoil in health care and the economy may be shifting the dynamics for health promotion and disease prevention" (Woolf, JAMA, 5/28).