Education and polypharmacy: A national study of racial and ethnic variations

Terrence D. Hill, Jason A. Ford and Harvey L. Nicholson

Social Science Quarterly, 2022, vol. 103, issue 7, 1687-1705

Abstract: Objective We examine the association between college education and the number of medications used/misused in the past year. We also consider the possibility of differential socioeconomic returns to health for racial/ethnic minorities. Methods The data come from the 2015–2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (n = 144,589). Results In accordance with human capital theory, we found that, in the full sample and white subsample, college education was associated with lower levels of polypharmacy, even with adjustments for financial insecurity, health, and lifestyle. Consistent with the diminished return theory, we observed that college education was mostly unrelated to polypharmacy among black and Hispanic individuals. While health commodity theory was supported among Asians, health disparity theory was confirmed among individuals of other races and ethnicities. Conclusion The most important implication of our study is that polypharmacy can be simultaneously structured by durable systems of social stratification, including education, race, and ethnicity.

Date: 2022
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