10 Most Common Reasons People Go to the Doctor
From fool.com
With the full implementation of the individual portion of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act less than five months
away, physicians and doctor's offices around the country should
be bracing for what could be an influx of new patients. With the
mandate for insurance comes the potential that more people
(both those covered under Medicaid expansion and self-insured
individuals) may choose to visit their doctor more often to address ongoing and preventative concerns.
From an investing standpoint and as a society, we understand
what diseases are most prevalent, where the trends are rising,
and what medications are being developed to treat
these diseases. Obesity, for instance, is a disease
that affects 35.7% of the U.S. population, and with
it comes a considerably higher risk of developing
high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and
cancer. Similarly, some 25 million people in the
U.S. are diabetic, with another nearly 80 million in
a pre-diabetes stage. You'd think with staggering
figures like these that the majority of doctors office visits would be related in some way to chronic
weight or diabetic issues.
But that's just not the case, according to a large
study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, which looked
at 142,377 patients between 2005 and 2009 to determine why exactly they went to see their doctor.
Your initial impression might be to assume that
high-profile and prevalent diseases tend to be the
main reason people go see their doctor, but it actually tends to be more subtle symptoms that drive
us to seek help.
Here are the 10 most common reasons the Mayo
Clinic listed in its study for why people go see their
doctor :
1. Skin disorders, including cysts, acne, and dermatitis.
2. Joint disorders, including osteoarthritis.
3. Back problems.
4. Cholesterol problems
5. Upper respiratory conditions
6. Anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression.
7. Chronic neurologic disorders
8. High blood pressures.
9. Headaches and migraines.
10. Diabetes.
least some context because of a dermatologic disorder. What this
means for you as an investor is that there could be a huge growth
potential in skin-disorder companies should more people choose
to visit their physicians next year. found among melanoma patients.
Joint disorders
Bone and joint health are common disorders that should have
popped into my head earlier as a possible reason for a doctor's
visit, but they are also often overlooked by investors despite ac-
.....Continued on the next page
Skin disorders
According to the Mayo Clinics' study, nearly
43% of respondents went to see their doctor in at
16