Achieving Equality May Do More for Health than Perfecting the Technology of Care
Year: 2005
Type: article
Abstract: Does society save more lives by enhancing the technology of care or by resolving disparities? The answer would take years to determine (data and statistical methods for sound projections are lacking). However, a study from 1991 to 2000, using the National Center for Health Statistics data, contrasted the number of lives saved by medical advances with the number of deaths attributable to excess mortality among African Americans. The study concluded that medical advances averted 176,633 deaths, but equalizing the mortality rates of whites and African Americans would have averted 886,202 deaths. Because the study formulated a five-fold difference in averted deaths, more precise calculations would be unlikely.
Source: PubMed Central
Author: Jennifer Coates Conroy
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2412417854