Chronic Disease, Prescription Medications, and Food Purchases

Abstract

Purpose: Diet-related chronic diseases like diabetes can be dangerous and expensive to treat, especially for patients who do not follow a recommended diet. Meanwhile, prescription drugs can alleviate the symptoms of or control many diet-related chronic diseases, but these drugs may also weaken the resolve to follow recommended diets (moral hazard). Design: We measure the effect of a diagnosis of chronic disease and subsequent pharmacological treatment on the dietary quality of food purchases using a large panel data set of US consumers. We estimate the effect of prescription drug utilization on food purchases for the following chronic diseases: type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, and obesity. Participants: Panelists of the Information Resources, Inc consumer panel. Measures: Dietary quality is measured as purchases of (1) food groups (ie, fruit, vegetables, and sweets) and (2) nutrients (ie, saturated fat, fiber, sodium, sugar, and total calories). Analysis: Linear regression with mixed effects on pooled panel (household random effects, city fixed effects). Results/Conclusion: We do not find strong effects of either diagnosis or pharmacological treatment of diet-related disease on food purchases.