CIGNA: Sick Markets May Lead To Sick Bodies

October 08, 2008 at 11:58 AM
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Some Americans say they are responding to the economic turmoil by taking better care of themselves, but some say they are taking worse care of themselves.

Researchers at CIGNA Health Care, Bloomfield, Conn., a unit of CIGNA Corp., Philadelphia, have published those findings in a summary of results of telephone surveys of 2,008 U.S. adults ages 18 and older conducted in mid-September and in early October.

About one-third of the participants said the state of the economy has changed the way they take care of themselves, and 55% of the participants who have changed their behavior said they are trying to exercise more, eat better and do a better job of getting check-ups and screenings, the CIGNA researchers report.

But about 41% of the participants who said they have changed the way they take care of themselves said they are doing a worse job then they were before the economy weakened.

About 35% of the participants who said they fit in that category reported that they are not going to the doctor regularly, or at all, and 17% said they have stopped taking their medications or are taking their medications less often. About 10% said they are eating less nutritious food or cannot afford to eat properly.

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