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© Copyright 2000 Rogers Media. The following article first appeared in the June 2000 edition of
BENEFITS CANADA magazine.
Insights
By Andrea Davis
Beating diabetes
A new study reveals that the fat-blocking drug Xenical can help reverse high blood sugar and even prevent
type 2 diabetes in obese individuals. Approximately 1.5 million Canadians have diabetes and, according to
Statistics Canada, 46% of Canadians are overweight or obese.
Researchers analyzed data from three clinical trials involving 675 obese patients. Participants in the
three trials received either a placebo or Xenical three times a day for two years. In all three studies,
the patients treated with Xenical lost more weight and demonstrated better blood sugar control than those
who received the placebo.
Among participants already on their way to becoming diabetic, nearly three-quarters (72%) of the subjects
treated with Xenical converted their blood sugar from abnormal to normal, compared with fewer than half
(49%) of those receiving the placebo. In addition, more than twice as many patients who received the
placebo became diabetic (8%), compared to the group treated with Xenical, where only 3% became diabetic.
In Canada, Xenical's manufacturer, Roche Canada, recently introduced a money-back guarantee for the drug.
Roche will refund the cost of the medication (to a maximum of $450) if patients don't lose 10 lbs. in 12
weeks. The refund will be paid either to the patient or his insurance company.
To qualify, patients must enrol in a support program, called Weigh to BodyWellness, designed by physicians,
dietitians and psychologists, within a week of starting to take Xenical. In addition, patients must eat
healthy meals, increase their physical activity, take Xenical three times daily with meals and see their
physician for progress visits and after 12 weeks, to record their weight.
To be eligible for the money-back guarantee, a patient's first prescription for the drug must be filled by
Dec. 31. A one-month supply of Xenical costs about $129.
Worked to death
In Japan, where working long hours is common, a growing number of workers have been dying from
cardiovascular disease. Such deaths even have a name--karoshi--meaning "death from overwork." Are Canadian
plan members at risk? Recent research suggests they are.
Statistics from the National Population Health Survey, conducted by the federal government, indicate that
employees who work more than 41 hours a week may have unhealthier lifestyles than their colleagues who work
fewer hours. The study looked at four factors--smoking, weight gain, alcohol consumption and physical
activity--to determine if long hours are associated with unhealthy lifestyle changes.
According to the research, both men and women who work long hours have higher odds of increased cigarette
consumption when compared with employees who work standard hours. Men had higher odds of an unhealthy
weight gain and women had higher odds of increased alcohol consumption. In addition, women who worked long
hours had increased odds of depression. Surprisingly, researchers found that increased working hours were
not related to a decrease in physical activity.
The health survey will track respondents over a 20-year period so researchers can study the link between
working long hours and more serious health conditions such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular
disease.
The question of choice
Despite the number of investment options available to members in some defined contribution plans, plan
sponsors report that more than half of all members use four options or less.
SOURCE: Survey of Defined Contribution Plans, William M. Mercer Limited.
Investment education 101
Plan sponsors who bemoan the lack of investment knowledge among plan members should take heart in a new
pilot project launched by the Investor Learning Centre (ILC).
The program aims to take investment education to a new audience--high school students. Launched in 17
classrooms across Canada this spring, the program teaches grade 11 and 12 students investment basics such
as how capital markets work, the magic of compounding, how to read stock and bond quotes in newspapers and
life-stage investing.
Suggestions for improvement will be incorporated into the program materials, which will be distributed free
to grade 11 and 12 classrooms in select cities across the country during the 2000/2001 school year.
"Overall, feedback has been positive," says Carolyn Morris, communications coordinator at the ILC in
Toronto. "Investing is a dry topic, there's no two ways about it. But [students] found the materials
engaging and easy to read."
The seeds of the program were sown a year ago when the ILC hired Angus Reid to survey Canadians about their
opinions on investment education for teens. Over 80% of respondents felt it was important to have some type
of investment education in high schools.
Walk the talk
If your benefits plan doesn't reflect your corporate culture, you could be doing your employees more harm
than good. "You might profess to have a great flexible work time policy but if the culture is that
everyone's got to be there from seven in the morning until seven at night and no one takes advantage of it,
it's almost as if it [the benefit] is mocking you," says Brian Toda, a consultant with Hewitt Associates in
Toronto.
Hewitt surveyed corporations across Canada recently to come up with a list of the 35 best companies to work
for. One of the hallmarks of the 35 best, which included such firms as Maritime Life and Canadian Tire, was
an emphasis on culture, learning and development.
"Where the benefits program is aligned with the culture of the organization, that's where you get the value
from it," says Toda.
Viagra for all
Viagra is such a cost-effective treatment for impotence that the public sector should pick up the tab,
according to Dutch economists who say that when improvements to quality of life are considered, Viagra is
more cost-effective than screening for breast cancer or kidney transplants.
More than 535,000 prescriptions for Viagra have been written since it was approved by Health Canada last
year. The drug, sold in four- and eight-packs, costs between $12 and $13 per pill.
The Dutch economists contend that to gauge the true cost of drugs, society must look beyond mere costs and
evaluate the benefits of treatment. To do so, they use a quality-adjusted life year (QALY) measure that
takes the duration of a health state and multiplies it by the quality of the intervention, which is rated
on a scale of one to 10.
For Viagra, the cost of achieving QALY for a year was $8,480, decreasing to $6,125 after five years. Breast
cancer screening is $13,470 and kidney transplantation is $10,975. The economists fail to point out,
however, that the latter are both life-saving measures, while Viagra is not.
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