Journal
SOCIAL SCIENCE & MEDICINE
Volume 82, Issue -, Pages 35-42Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.01.018
Keywords
Health disparities; Health care providers; Health knowledge; Provider-patient interaction; United States
Funding
- Department of Sociology
- Children, Youth and Family Consortium
- Graduate School at the University of Minnesota
- Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making
- American Sociological Association
- National Science Foundation [SES-1002794]
- postdoctoral National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [1 F32 HD070595-01]
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Socially advantaged individuals are better positioned to benefit from advances in biomedicine, which frequently results in the emergence of social inequalities in health. I use survey and in-depth interviews with pregnant women and their health care providers from four Midwestern clinics in the United States, conducted in 2009 and 2010. I compare socioeconomic differences in intake of two new prenatal supplements: Vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid. Although socioeconomic differences in omega-3 fatty acid supplementation emerged, there were no differences in the use of vitamin D. I argue that providers may have contributed to the prevention of a health disparity in vitamin D supplementation by implementing an aggressive uniform protocol. These results suggest that providers not only serve as a conduit for the dissemination of new biomedical information, the strength and uniformity of their recommendations have the potential to prevent or exacerbate socioeconomic differences in health behaviors. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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