Biomedical subjects

T Waidmann

Publications and source records attributed to T Waidmann.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Medical malpractice liability and its effect on prenatal care utilization and infant health.

In this paper we conduct the first national evaluation of the effect of malpractice liability pressure, as measured by malpractice premiums, on prenatal care utilization and infant health. Our results indicate that a decrease in malpractice premiums that would result from a feasible policy reform would lead to a decrease in the incidence of late prenatal care by between 3.0 and 5.9% for black women and between 2.2 and 4.7% for white women. Although, we found evidence that malpractice liability pressure was associated with greater prenatal care delay and fewer prenatal care visits, we did not find evidence that such pressure negatively affected infant health.

Black or African American↗

PubMed1999

The impact of malpractice fears on cesarean section rates.

A longstanding issue in the health care industry is whether physicians' malpractice fears lead to defensive medicine. We use national birth certificate data from 1990 through 1992 to conduct a county fixed-effects analysis of the impact of malpractice claims risk on cesarean-section rates and infant health. Malpractice claims risk is measured by obstetricians' malpractice premiums. The study provides evidence that physicians practice defensive medicine in obstetrics but that the impact of increased cesarean sections that results from malpractice fears on total obstetric care costs is small. The study also finds that physicians' defensive response varies with the socioeconomic status of the mother.

Cesarean Section↗

PubMed1997

Race, socioeconomic status, and health: accounting for race differences in health.

This article uses the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) study to examine the extent to which observed differences in the prevalence of chronic conditions and functional limitations between Black and White adults (aged 70+) in the United States can be attributed to differences in various aspects of socioeconomic status (SES) between these groups. We use linear and logistic regression techniques to model the relationships between health outcomes and SES. Our findings indicate that race differences in measurable socioeconomic characteristics indeed explain a substantial fraction, but in general not all, of Black/White differences in health status. While our findings do not suggest that low SES directly "causes" poor health, any more than being Black does so, they do suggest that research and policy intended to address the deficit in health status among Blacks (when compared to Whites) in the U.S. would be well-served to begin with the deficit in wealth, education, and other SES measures.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed1996

Race differences in labor force attachment and disability status.

We used the first wave of the Health and Retirement Survey to study the effect of health on the labor force activity of black and white men and women in their 50s. The evidence we present confirms the notion that health is an extremely important determinant of early labor force exit. Our estimates suggest that health differences between blacks and whites can account for most of the racial gap in labor force attachment for men. For women, when participation rates are comparable, our estimates imply that black women would be substantially more likely to work than white women were it not for the marked health differences. We also found for both men and women that poor health has a substantially larger effect on labor force behavior for blacks. The evidence suggests that these differences result from black/white differences in access to the resources necessary to retire.

Black or African American↗

PubMed1995

The illusion of failure: trends in the self-reported health of the U.S. elderly.

Data from the National Health Interview Survey showed a trend toward worsening self-reported health among older American men and women during the 1970s. This evidence--combined with the significant declines in age-specific mortality observed since the 1960s--led some researchers to suggest that the health of the older population is declining. An examination of recent trends in self-reported health indicates that the health declines observed during the 1970s generally reversed during the 1980s. This reversal not only belies the argument that lower adult mortality implies worse health, but also challenges the belief that trends in self-reported health during the 1970s reflected actual health declines. A more plausible explanation is that changes in the social and economic forces, combined with earlier diagnosis of preexisting conditions, influenced the options available for responding to health problems.

Activities of Daily Living↗