Health, racial/ethnic disparities

III. Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health and Health Care... 

Racial/Ethnic Diversity in Research Training and Health Disparities Research. Washington, D.C. 

United States Dept, of Health Human Serv. The initiative to teliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health... 

Institute of Medicine, Unequal Treatment Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, Washington, DC National Academy Press (2002). 

When new technologies are not available to all members of a society, they can exacerbate existing inequalities in the system of medical care. Currently the structure of the U.S. health care system is fundamentally flawed. Racial and ethnic disparities in health status and health care, more than 40 million uninsured, spiraling health care costs, and inadequate levels of culturally competent medical care are all evidence of this problem. 

Byrd, M.W. and L. Clayton, "Understanding and Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care A Background and History," In Unequal Treatment Confronting Ethnic and Racial Disparities in Care, Institute of Medicine, National Academy Press, Washington, DC (2002b). 

Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Access to Health Insurance and Health Care," UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, XI, 3 (2002). 

Ryn, V., "The Implications of Social Cognition and Theory for the Provider Contribution to Race/Ethnicity Disparities in Health Care," Commissioned Paper Prepared for Physicians for Human Rights Committee on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Diagnosis and Treatment in the United States Health System, Washington, DC (2001). 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, "Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health," Office of Minority Health (1999). 

The fourth goal of the conference report on children s mental health calls for the elimination of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in access to mental health care services. Schools are perceived as an important part of the strategy for enhancing access to mental health services for children. The conference report recommends that mental health services be colocated with other key systems, such as education, to improve access, especially in remote or rural communities. It also advises that if schools resource capacities are strengthened, they can serve as a key link to a comprehensive system of school- and community-based identification, assessment, and treatment services for meeting the needs of youth and their families. 

Assumptions and Stereotypes. One explanation for disparities in care relates to the assumptions held by health providers about racial and ethnic groups. Race-based health research and practice reveal a series of dubious assumptions and negative profiles of African American and other patients of color that lead to inferior medical treatment. Medicine sometimes attaches characteristics to particular racial and ethnic groups, and physicians... 

In the U.S., race has been used as a proxy for a variety of physical, mental, and social dimensions. The legacy of racism still pervades society, including disparity in access to health care and in health care outcomes (see chapter by Nsiah-Jefferson, this volume). In attempting to eliminate these health disparities there have been efforts to include racial and ethnic minorities in research studies and to generate better data on racial and ethnic variations in health status. Although most policy makers and commentators believe that racial classifications in data collection and outcomes research are needed to eliminate health disparities, others believe that such policies prolong the use of a flawed concept and reify race as a pseudoscientific measure (Lee et al., 2001). 

Khabele D. Racial and ethnic health disparities, women and cancer. The Medscape Journal 2005. http //cme.medscape.com/viewprogram/4412. 

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