Socioeconomic Differences in the Adoption of New Medical Technologies

摘要

New medical technologies hold tremendous promise for improving population health, but they also raise concerns about exacerbating already large differences in health by socioeconomic status (SES) (Smith, 1999). In prior work, we found that better self-management of disease by the more educated was a critical factor in maintaining the SES health gradient for two distinct diseases: diabetes and HIV (Goldman and Smith, 2002). For these diseases, both of which are characterized by the introduction of new effective treatment technologies, differences by education in patient adherence to prescribed treatment explained a significant component of the health gradient.