Page 197 - Demo

195This study compared fi ve years of health statistics of 2,000 people following the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program compared to normative data, which is the average of all 600,000 people covered by the insurance company. The chart above compares the hospitalization rate of the TM group (light bars) with the normative data (dark bars). It can be seen in the chart that the TM group had lower hospitalization rates in all categories of disease, by an average of approximately 50% overall. Reductions in the TM group included 87% less hospitalization for heart disease, 55% less for cancer, 87% less for diseases of the nervous system, and 65% less for metabolic disease. Similar results were found comparing the TM group with a control group matched for age and profession, indicating that the results for TM were not due to age or type of profession. The results for outpatient medical care utilization (doctor visits) and medical costs were similar to the results for hospitalization, approximately 50% lower for the TM group than the norm.The subjects in this study had been practicing TM for about 5 years, which suggests that their medical utilization and costs were decreasing at a rate of about 10% per year over the 5-year period in the TM group. (Reference 1) This was confi rmed by a 14-year study of 1,418 people before and after they learned TM compared to 1,418 matched non-meditating controls. In the eight years before the TM group learned TM, their medical care costs were not different from the control group. However, after they learned TM, their medical care costs decreased by an average of 14% per year relative to controls. (Reference 2)p < .00001TM Other Groups2015105060Fewer Hospital Admissions in All Disease CategoriesHospital Admissions per 1,000 membersIntestinal Heart Genital &UrinaryInjuries Tumors Bone &MuscleIll-DefinedConditionNose, Throat,LungAll MentalDisordersMetabolism InfectiousDiseasesSkin BloodDisordersCongenitalDisordersNervous OtherSystemtm-033LESS NEED FOR HEALTH CAREReference 1: Orme-Johnson, D. W. (1987). Medical care utilization and the Transcendental Meditation program. Psychosomatic Medicine, 49, 493%u2013507. Reference 2: Herron, R., & Hillis, S. (2000). The impact of the Transcendental Meditation program on government payments to physicians in Quebec: An update. American Journal of Health Promotion, 14(5), 284%u2013293.