MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR YOUR HEALTH

Consuming just under 10 percent of gross domestic product of most developed nations, health care can form an enormous part of a country's economy. In 2003, health care costs paid to hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, diagnostic laboratories, pharmacies, medical device manufacturers and other components of the health care system, consumed 16.3 percent of the GDP of the United States, the largest of any country in the world. For the United States, the health care share of gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to hold steady in 2006 before resuming its historical upward trend, reaching 19.5 percent of GDP by 2016. In 2001, for the OECD countries the average was 8.4 percent with the United States (13.9%), Switzerland (10.9%), and Germany (10.7%) being the top three.

As obesity is one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide and with rates of adult and childhood obesity increasing, authorities view it as one of the most serious public health problem of the 21st century. Obesity is often stigmatized in the modern Western world. However, it has been perceived as a symbol of wealth and fertility at other times in history and still is in many parts of Africa.

The World Health Organization (WHO ) predicts that overweight and obesity may soon replace more traditional public health concerns such as undernutrition and infectious diseases as the most significant cause of poor health.Obesity is a public health and policy problem because of its prevalence, costs, and health effects. Public health efforts seek to understand and correct the environmental factors responsible for the increasing prevalence of obesity in the population. Solutions look at changing the factors that cause excess calorie consumption and inhibit physical activity. Efforts include federally reimbursed meal programs in schools, limiting direct junk food marketing to children, and decreasing access to sweetened beverages in schools.