Potential for reducing health care costs by public and patient education. Summary of selected studies.

PATIENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMS remain one of the most neglected if not one of the most obscure areas in health care. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare's Report to the President's Committee on Health Education (1) states that of $18.2 billion allocated for health purposes, DHEW estimates that it spends no more than $44 million on health education, about one-fifth of 1 percent. The President's Committee also discovered that State and territorial health departments allocate less than one-half of 1 percent of their budgets for health education. As late as 1970, Sommers and Sommers identified only 50 U.S. hospitals with a planned health education program (2). Recently, however, there has been an unusual amount of interest in patient and public health education activities in the nation. In his 1971 health message to Congress, President Nixon devoted several paragraphs to the importance of health education for the health care of Americans. Later that year he followed his message by appointing the President's Committee on Health Education. Blue Cross Association, at the national level, has also increased its interest in health education; in Michigan, Blue Cross television commercials are geared to encourage health education. The American Hospital Association has endorsed the concept of health education, and the American Association of Medical Clinics