IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2008.157685_9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health insurance and mortality in US adults

Author

Listed:
  • Wilper, A.P.
  • Woolhandler, S.
  • Lasser, K.E.
  • McCormick, D.
  • Bor, D.H.
  • Himmelstein, D.U.

Abstract

Objectives. A 1993 study found a 25% higher risk of death among uninsured compared with privately insured adults. We analyzed the relationship between uninsurance and death with more recent data. Methods. We conducted a survival analysis with data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We analyzed participants aged 17 to 64 years to determine whether uninsurance at the time of interview predicted death. Results. Among all participants, 3.1% (95% confidence interval [CI]=2.5%, 3.7%) died. The hazard ratio for mortality among the uninsured compared with the insured, with adjustment for age and gender only, was 1.80 (95% CI=1.44, 2.26). After additional adjustment for race/ethnicity, income, education, self- and physician-rated health status, body mass index, leisure exercise, smoking, and regular alcohol use, the uninsured were more likely to die (hazard ratio=1.40; 95% CI=1.06, 1.84) than those with insurance. Conclusions. Uninsurance is associated with mortality. The strength of that association appears similar to that from a study that evaluated data from the mid-1980s, despite changes in medical therapeutics and the demography of the uninsured since that time.

Suggested Citation

  • Wilper, A.P. & Woolhandler, S. & Lasser, K.E. & McCormick, D. & Bor, D.H. & Himmelstein, D.U., 2009. "Health insurance and mortality in US adults," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(12), pages 2289-2295.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2008.157685_9
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.157685
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2008.157685
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2008.157685?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2008.157685_9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.