July 22, 2014 — Health and wealth are intimately connected. In the United States, people with lower incomes and less education are more likely to smoke, to be overweight, and to be less healthy. One reason for this may be the divide between the ways in which people from different classes access and are exposed to health-related information.

“If you are in a higher socioeconomic position, you are more likely to know about and better understand health risk factors, and to have the capacity to act on this information,” said K. “Vish” Viswanath, professor of health communication at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), in a July 15, 2014 “Hot Topics” lecture.

Lower income people have less access to all types of media, Viswanath said, and greater exposure to advertising for unhealthy products such as tobacco and fast food. This information environment can affect their health in a variety of ways, such as influencing their beliefs about healthy behavior and limiting their ability to make informed decisions about medical treatments.

Viswanath identified a potential way to bridge the health information divide: Treat access to the Internet as a right and provide subsidies for those unable to pay. Despite the seeming ubiquity of smartphones, only 70% of low-income people have Internet access, Viswanath said, and even that number may be an overstatement. Poor people who get online are often unable to keep up with the bill and are cut off— losing access to a key tool for participating in modern life.

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Continua qui: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/overcoming-inequality-by-improving-internet-access/