Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/58924 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6409
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We examine the impact of new medical information on drug safety on preventive health behavior. We exploit the release of the findings of the Women's Health Initiative Study (WHIS) - the largest randomized controlled trial of women's health - which demonstrated in 2002 that long-term Hormone Replacement Therapy increases the risk of heart attacks, stroke, blood clots and breast cancer among healthy post-menopausal women. Because hormone replacement is a therapy exclusive to women, we estimate the spillover effects of the WHIS findings on health behavior by means of a difference-in-differences methodology using men of similar ages as the control group. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for 1998-2007, we find statistically significant small negative spillovers on post-menopausal women's likelihood of having an annual checkup and choice of a healthy diet, as proxied by daily fruit consumption. Our results also indicate that the observed spillover effects of drug safety on health behavior were entirely driven by the less educated. These findings suggest that policies aimed at raising awareness on the safety of medications may have unintended spillover effects on health behavior and that these spillovers may contribute to the existing health disparities by education.
Subjects: 
spillovers
preventive behavior
health disparities
health production
JEL: 
I10
I12
I14
I18
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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