"Health & Medical News"

Washington — While the national health spending growth rate increased slightly in 2006, the percentage rise in expenditures on physician services slowed markedly, due largely to a small Medicare pay increase and its private-sector fallout, according to a new report by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

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The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) says that young people were exposed to about 6 percent fewer alcohol ads in 2006 than they were in 2001, with exposure to print ads on the wane but youth exposure to alcohol ads on TV rising, AdWeek reported Dec. 20.

The report,? ”Youth Exposure to Alcohol Advertising on Television and in National Magazines, 2001 to 2006,” found that a 50-percent decrease in youth exposure to alcohol ads in magazine was partially offset by a 30-percent increase in television ad viewing. Neilsen Media Research reported that spending on TV alcohol ads rose 19.8 percent between 2001 and 2006, to about $800 million annually.

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The annual Monitoring the Future survey finds declining use of cigarettes and illicit drugs among 8th-graders that signifies “an ongoing cultural shift among teens and their attitudes about smoking and substance abuse,” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

NIDA said that the 2007 survey found considerable declines in lifetime, past-month, and daily smoking among 8th-graders. Daily smoking rates fell to 3 percent, down from a peak of 10.4 percent in 1996.

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By Bob Curley

Fewer adolescents are telling federal researchers that they use marijuana, but the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported that most indicators of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use remain relatively unchanged from 2005.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) unveiled the survey results on Sept. 6, with federal officials touting a 25-percent reported decline in marijuana use among male youths between 2002 and 2006 but fretting over the 2.2 million new nonmedical users of prescription drugs, including narcotic painkillers. Most users of prescription drugs for recreational reasons reported getting the drugs free from friends or family members.

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