Biomarkers, disability and health care demand

Apostolos Davillas and Stephen Pudney

No 517, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: Using longitudinal data from a representative UK panel, we focus on a group of apparently healthy individuals with no history of disability or major chronic health condition at baseline. A latent variable structural equation model is used to analyse the predictive role of latent baseline biological health, indicated by a rich set of biomarkers, and other personal characteristics, in determining the individual’s disability state and health service utilisation five years later. We find that baseline health affects future health service utilisation very strongly, via functional disability as a mediating outcome. Our model reveals that observed income inequality in the access to health care, is driven by the fact that higher-income people tend to make greater use of healthcare treatment, for any given health and disability status. This leads to a slight rise in utilisation with income, despite the lower average need for treatment shown by the negative income gradients for both baseline health and disability outcomes. Factor loadings for latent baseline health show that a broader set of blood-based biomarkers, rather than the current focus mainly on blood pressure, cholesterol and adiposity, may need to be considered for public health screening programs.

Keywords: Health Services; Healthcare Demand; Biomarkers; Disability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C3 C8 I10 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/215798/1/GLO-DP-0517.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Biomarkers, disability and health care demand (2020)
Working Paper: Biomarkers, disability and health care demand (2020)
Working Paper: Biomarkers, disability and health care demand (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:517

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().