Business School, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
School of International Trade and Economics, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China.
Front Public Health. 2022 Jun 9;10:935608. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.935608. eCollection 2022.
Access to information and resources through the Internet has become an increasingly critical aspect of contemporary life. Based on the WHO Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT) and cross-country panel data, this paper investigates the effect of Internet access on health inequality across different income groups. The results indicate that access to the Internet significantly improves the average health condition and alleviates health inequality. In addition, employing cross-country data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database, this paper further examines the social and economic determinants of access to healthcare. Specifically, it is found that Internet access significantly facilitates healthcare access and mitigates the negative impact of income inequality on healthcare access. Considered together, these findings shed light on the importance of the Internet in reducing health inequality and improving healthcare access.
通过互联网获取信息和资源已经成为当代生活日益重要的一个方面。基于世界卫生组织健康公平评估工具包（HEAT）和跨国面板数据，本文研究了互联网接入对不同收入群体健康不平等的影响。结果表明，互联网接入显著改善了平均健康状况，缓解了健康不平等。此外，本文还利用全球疾病负担（GBD）数据库中的跨国数据，进一步考察了获得医疗保健的社会和经济决定因素。具体而言，研究发现互联网接入显著促进了医疗保健的可及性，并减轻了收入不平等对医疗保健可及性的负面影响。综合考虑这些发现，说明了互联网在减少健康不平等和改善医疗保健可及性方面的重要性。
