HEALTH

NEW YORK — Compared with those who continue to smoke, quitters are both happier and more satisfied with their health, both one year and three years afterward, than those who continue to smoke, according to new research published last week in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

Smokers hold strong beliefs about how stopping smoking will reduce their quality of life. Positive experiences of smoking cessation, including improved well-being, could be used by clinicians to educate and motivate individuals to stop smoking.

For those of us in the healthcare and wellness business, we realize our industry is changing and evolving quickly, mostly out of pure necessity.  The healthcare industry is overburdened, over budget and in need of an overhaul.  But the potential for our healthcare and wellness system is incredible for all audiences it touches — from consumers to medical professions to healthcare and wellness marketers. Throughout this past year familiar themes rang clear across our industry, giving us insights into what will play vital roles for healthcare in our future.

MORRISTOWN, N.J. — Bayer recently engaged the Goldstein Group to rejuvenate the cough-cold Neo-Synephrine brand and improve the brand's identity on shelf.

The brand design group employs such tools as its trademarked Shelf Sight Sequence, a packaging design service that improves shelf presence with "a visual vocabulary of proprietary colors, shapes, symbols and verbiage ... to trigger the consumer's purchasing impulse at first sight."

PITMAN, N.J. — According to an article in the November/December issue of the journal Medical-Surgical Nursing, rates of HIV/AIDS, herpes, syphilis, human papilloma virus and other STDs are climbing steadily across men and women older than 50 years. 

NEW YORK — The Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program on Wednesday recommended that Emergent Health modify or discontinue certain Internet advertising claims for the company’s “JDI MultiVitamin,” promoted by the advertiser as designed to “increase adult stem cells.” The marketer voluntarily modified several claims at issue in ERSP’s inquiry.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — In recognition of the important role pharmacists can play in improving medication adherence, the National Consumers League last week hosted a "Script Your Future" event at a Birmingham, Ala.-area community pharmacy.
 

WASHINGTON — Approximately 5.3% of high school seniors abused over-the-counter cough-cold medicines in the past month, according to the latest "Monitoring the Future" survey released Wednesday by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. That's down from 6.6% of high school seniors who claimed to have recently abused cough-cold medicines last year.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Cambridge Consultants on Thursday released a report outlining how the health-and-wellness market may take shape as more consumer-friendly medical devices featuring the latest in technology reach the market.

“Disruption in this market will come from medical firms moving from 10-year product lifecycles and confronting the 18-month lifecycles of the consumer world, and from consumer companies adapting to the rigorous processes demanded by medical regulations,” stated Duncan Smith, head of product development at Cambridge Consultants.