Primary care, social inequalities, and all-cause, heart disease, and cancer mortality in US counties, 1990.

OBJECTIVES We tested the association between the availability of primary care and income inequality on several categories of mortality in US counties. METHODS We used cross-sectional analysis of data from counties (n=3081) in 1990, including analysis of variance and multivariate ordinary least squares regression. Independent variables included primary care resources, income inequality, and sociodemographics. RESULTS Counties with higher availability of primary care resources experienced between 2% and 3% lower mortality than counties with less primary care. Counties with high income inequality experienced between 11% and 13% higher mortality than counties with less inequality. CONCLUSIONS Primary care resources may partially moderate the effects of income inequality on health outcomes at the county level.