Nature Communications (Oct 2018)

Patchwork of contrasting medication cultures across the USA

  • Rachel D. Melamed,
  • Andrey Rzhetsky

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06205-1
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Health care in the United States is heterogeneous with respect to factors like disease incidence, treatment choices and health care spending. Here, the authors use insurance claims data from over 150 million patients to compare prescription rates of over 600 drugs, and uncover patterns of geographical variation that suggest an influence of race, health care laws and wealth.