October 30, 2023
Paige Haehlke
Mandy Gaulke ’09 awarded grant to continue health disparities research
The Independent Research Fund Denmark awarded Mandy Gaulke ’09 and her research group 3.1 million DKK (about $438,000) for their research project titled “Advancements in medical technology and disparities in health.”
Gaulke, who majored in economics at Lake Forest College, is an associate professor in the Department of Economics at Kansas State University.
Gaulke’s research group previously conducted a study that shows large socioeconomic disparities in how the childhood onset of type one diabetes impacts labor market outcomes as adults. These disparities exist despite Denmark having universal access to healthcare, which led Gaulke’s group to ask why and continue their research.
While everyone has access to healthcare in Denmark, children and adolescents with type one diabetes are treated at specific clinics based on their location in the country. There is variation across these clinics in when doctors had access to start prescribing insulin pumps — an advanced treatment — which is helpful for Gaulke’s research aim.
“We can look at the clinics that got them earlier versus later and see what happens to socioeconomic disparities in health and can use those as our treatment and control group,” Gaulke said. “Advancements in medical technology probably are going to lead to better health outcomes, but if everyone isn’t taking them up at the same sort of rate, then that could lead to more disparities in health.”
Gaulke noted that people frequently ask her why she isn’t conducting this analysis in the US. The answer is simple: the data doesn’t exist here. The standardization of access to healthcare in Denmark offers a uniform setting for Gaulke and her team to get to the bottom of why these disparities exist.
“And then the other really nice thing on top of the data is we can rule out that it’s differences in health insurance, so it has to be something else that’s driving these disparities that we’re seeing,” Gaulke said. “This suggests that socioeconomic background matters for health, and health insurance alone is not enough to eliminate health disparities.”
Gaulke’s passion for her research stems from personal challenges navigating the world of health insurance in the US. Noting the challenges even economically advantaged people have in navigating the health care system made Gaulke hypothesize there would be large differences in health by socioeconomic background.
“My passion for researching health disparities is definitely something that's based on seeing things and talking to other people,” Gaulke said. “In my own family there have been challenges with some people getting access to good care based on where they live, for example. Disparities in health by socioeconomic status are a global concern.”
Gaulke speaks highly of her time at Lake Forest College, as the faculty and classes here helped prepare her for a very competitive graduate program in economics. Gaulke’s undergraduate thesis was advised by Professor of Economics Robert Lemke, who also convinced her to attend Lake Forest College and helped her achieve her goal of getting into an economics PhD program. Her Spanish classes taught her about societal inequalities, and her experience tutoring at the College opened the door to her interest in teaching.
“I worked as a tutor for Professor Sundberg’s microeconomics class, and that made me realize that I actually really liked helping people learn economics,” Gaulke said. “Prior to tutoring, I thought that I wanted a job focused solely on economic research, but tutoring made me want to have a job where I could do both teaching and research.”
Gaulke teaches classes for both undergraduate and graduate students at Kansas State University. Currently, she teaches microeconomics and will teach public finance courses in the spring. Gaulke applied for sabbatical from Kansas State University and is planning on living in Denmark for the 2024-25 academic year to continue her research at Aarhus University.