Need more health research

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Public wants more health research

WASHINGTON, Feb 02 (Reuters Health) -- Americans would like more money

to be spent

on medical research, and they believe the media does not give enough

attention to research,

according to a series of polls conducted over the last year.

The majority of Americans polled said they favored a doubling of

federal spending on medical

research over the next 5 years, said Woolley, president of

Research America, on

Monday at a conference sponsored by the Hastings Center.

Research America, an andria, Virginia-based alliance advocating

medical discoveries,

commissioned the polls.

When asked about current spending, just over half (53%) of adults

surveyed said they couldn't

think of any area where the government was spending too much.

Seventy-four percent said

they thought the media did not give enough attention to medical

research issues.

Sixty-to-seventy percent said too much space was given to covering

political scandals and

entertainment news.

Most of those polled also said they valued clinical and health

services research, and that they

felt tax dollars allocated to research were well spent. Respondents

were almost equally split on

whether there was more value in research to prevent or cure disease.

Fifty-five percent said

prevention was more important, while 40% said finding cures was more

valuable.

Woolley said that based on these polls, Americans would support

increases in federal agencies'

health-related budgets. " I believe the American public will support

and will pay for the conduct

of research at the level of scientific opportunity, " she said.

One way to do that would be to fund more grants, Woolley said. She

believes there is still a

gap between the public's perception of how much the government spends

on research and

reality. " People are shocked to find out that less than one percent of

the federal budget is spent

on all health research, " Woolley said.

" The money will follow if the public demands that high priority, " she

said.

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