Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

HEALTHCARE

Achieving health equity in liver disease pharmacotherapy

New data demonstrate racial and ethnic disparities in access to prescription medications in persons with chronic liver disease in the USA. Here, we discuss potential health equity solutions that address structural and social determinants of health to mitigate liver health inequities in access to liver disease pharmacotherapies.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Solutions to address social and structural determinants of health to achieve equity in access to liver disease pharmacotherapies.

References

  1. World Health Organization. Health equity. WHO https://www.who.int/health-topics/health-equity (2022).

  2. Tapper, E. B., Essien, U. R., Zhao, Z., Ufere, N. N. & Parikh, N. D. Racial and ethnic disparities in rifaximin use and subspecialty referrals for patients with hepatic encephalopathy in the United States. J. Hepatol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2022.02.010 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Essien, U. R., Dusetzina, S. B. & Gellad, W. F. A policy prescription for reducing health disparities-achieving pharmacoequity. JAMA 326, 1793–1794 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Marcus, J. L. et al. Disparities in initiation of direct-acting antiviral agents for hepatitis C virus infection in an insured population. Public Health Rep. 133, 452–460 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wang, T. et al. Healthcare disparities identified between Hmong and other Asian origin groups living with chronic hepatitis B infection in Sacramento County 2014–2017. J. Community Health 45, 412–418 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Gordon, S. C. et al. Ursodeoxycholic acid treatment preferentially improves overall survival among African Americans with primary biliary cholangitis. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 115, 262–270 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Ahn, J. C. et al. Racial and ethnic disparities in early treatment with immunotherapy for advanced HCC in the United States. Hepatology https://doi.org/10.1002/hep.32527 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Jacobs, D. B. & Sommers, B. D. Using drugs to discriminate — adverse selection in the insurance marketplace. N. Engl. J. Med. 372, 399–402 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Ahn, S. & Corlette, S. State Efforts to Lower Consumer Cost-Sharing for High-Cost Prescription Drugs: Stakeholder Perspectives (Urban Institute, 2017).

  10. Guadamuz, J. S. et al. Fewer pharmacies in Black and Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods compared with white or diverse neighborhoods, 2007-15. Health Aff. 40, 802–811 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ani Kardashian.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kardashian, A., Nephew, L.D. Achieving health equity in liver disease pharmacotherapy. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 19, 489–490 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-022-00632-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-022-00632-8

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing