Shaw, Mary

Background: The inverse care law proposing that medical services are distributed inversely to population health needs, and that this law operates more completely where medical care is most exposed to market forces, was first suggested by Tudor Hart in 1971. This paper considers whether an inverse care law can be observed for the provision of informal care as well as for medical care.

Aim: Using data from the 2001 census we sought to investigate the contemporary relevance of the inverse care law.