Rase in Cell-Phone only homes can distort health tracking

According to a report released just this week by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in certain areas such as Oklahoma and Utah, as many as one-quarter of homes don't use landlines at all and are very reliant on their cell phones. Although it does reduce the cost for phone bills, it does not help the CDC as far as doing State based Health Surveys (that are conducted every year to find out sexual habits, childhood immunizations rates, and more), because when doing these surveys they rely mostly on landlines. It does not necessarily affect the health of a person, but the implications of how well the CDC can track the health of the nation. The information from the surveys that the CDC collects is often used by the government to set health policies aimed at reducing the number of people who lack health insurance, decreasing high risk behavior, and determining immunization rates for children and teens.



Source:

<http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/13/healthmag.cell.phone/index.html>