Minority Health and Health Equity Archive
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/21769
Welcome to the Minority Health and Health Equity Archive (MHHEA), an electronic archive for digital resource materials in the fields of minority health and health disparities research and policy. It is offered as a no-charge resource to the public, academic scholars and health science researchers interested in the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities.
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Item What is health equity? What are health disparities? And why do the definitions matter?(Center on Social Disparities in Health, 2013) Braveman, PaulaItem ‘‘It’s The Skin You’re In’’: African-American Women Talk About Their Experiences of Racism. An Exploratory Study to Develop Measures of Racism for Birth Outcome Studies(2008) Nuru-Jeter, Amani; Dominguez, Tyan Parker; Hammond, Wizdom Powell; Leu, Janxin; Skaff, Marilyn; Egerter, Susan; Jones, Camara P.; Braveman, PaulaObjectives: Stress due to experiences of racism could contribute to African-American women’s adverse birth outcomes, but systematic efforts to measure relevant experiences among childbearing women have been limited. We explored the racism experiences of childbearing African-American women to inform subsequent development of improved measures for birth outcomes research. Methods: Six focus groups were conducted with a total of 40 socioeconomically diverse African-American women of childbearing age in four northern California cities. Results Women reported experiencing racism (1) throughout the lifecourse, with childhood experiences seeming particularly salient and to have especially enduring effects (2) directly and vicariously, particularly in relation to their children; (3) in interpersonal, institutional, and internalized forms; (4) across different life domains; (5) with active and passive responses; and (6) with pervasive vigilance, anticipating threats to themselves and their children. Conclusions This exploratory study’s findings support the need for measures reflecting the complexity of childbearing African-American women’s racism experiences. In addition to discrete, interpersonal experiences across multiple domains and active/passive responses, which have been measured, birth outcomes research should also measure women’s childhood experiences and their potentially enduring impact, perceptions of institutionalized racism and internalized negative stereotypes, vicarious experiences related to their children, vigilance in anticipating future racism events, as well as the pervasiveness and chronicity of racism exposure, all of which could be sources of ongoing stress with potentially serious implications for birth outcomes. Measures of racism addressing these issues should be developed and formally tested.Item Overcoming Obstacles to Health(2008) Braveman, Paula; Egerter, SusanSocial differences in health can be reduced, but only if solutions can be identified to address their root causes. The greatest potential lies in solutions that will help people choose health. That means both strengthening individuals’ ability to make healthy choices and removing obstacles to choosing health. It also means creating more opportunities to be healthy. The human impact of health is clear: Health is essential to well-being and full participation in society, and ill health can mean suffering, disability and loss of life. The economic impacts of health have become increasingly apparent. If current trends continue, medical care costs, now about 16 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP),1 will reach 20 percent of GDP by 2015.2 The costs of medical care and insurance are now out of reach for many households, pushing some into bankruptcy. These costs are draining employers’ resources, threatening the bottom line of many American businesses. Federal, state and local health care spending is straining government budgets. Our society’s aging and the obesity epidemic will further increase costs of care.