Do broadband adoption rates impact a community's health?

Brian Whitacre and Lara Brooks

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2014, vol. 33, issue 7, 767-779

Abstract: As broadband Internet access becomes more common, researchers have focused on the ways that it might improve society. As part of this effort, we seek to determine whether increasing levels of broadband adoption have impacted actual health outcomes by assessing changes in aggregate health measures over time. We use data from 92 metropolitan/micropolitan statistical areas in the USA over the time period 2002–2009 and incorporate a first-differenced approach to uncover the relationship between levels of broadband adoption and various self-reported health outcomes. The results show that higher rates of broadband adoption play a statistically significant role in explaining changes in 9 of the 24 health measures considered. In some cases, higher levels of online activity are related to improved health outcomes. This suggests that policies to increase broadband adoption rates may have significant externalities related to health.

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2013.830334

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