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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1999 - 199912000 - 20064

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Author: search.filters.author.Thomas, Stephen BSubject: search.filters.subject.Health

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    THE BLACK ORGAN AND TISSUE DONOR SHORTAGE: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
    (2000) Thomas, Stephen B
    On April 16, 1999, the Department of Health and Human Services and the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) announced that the number of organ donors increased 5.6 percent in 1998, the first substantial increase since 1995. Donation increases between 1997 and 1998 were substantial for whites (up 6.6 percent from 4,139 to 4,410 donors) and Hispanics (up 7.8 percent from 552 to 595 donors). However, the number of black donors remained relatively unchanged at 654 donors in 1998, and the number of Asian donors decreased by 8.4 percent from 107 to 98 donors (HRSA, April 16, 1999).
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    BCHS 2524- Overview of Minority Health and Health Disparities in the US
    (2006) Thomas, Stephen B; Gilbert, Keon L
    Understanding health disparities involves a critical analysis of historical, political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental conditions that have produced an inequitable health status for racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. While we also recognize that disparities exist along socio-economic status, gender, sexual orientation and other factors, this class will focus on disparities in racial and ethnic minority communities. Issues of gender, SES and other factors will be examined as they intersect race and ethnicity, and further influence disparities in health. Minority health and health disparities have gained considerable attention from the recent publication of Healthy People 2010 Report, which lists as its two goals: 1) improve the quality of life for all citizens, and 2) eliminate health disparities. The purpose of this class is to introduce basic issues that underlie health disparities. We will gain a better understanding of the relationships of social and environmental phenomena and the health of minority communities. This course will include current literature and foster discussions that will examine health disparities, explore social and environmental determinants of those disparities, critically review measurement issues, and determine public health’s response to these disparities. Students should seek to critically reflect on their personal and professional roles in eliminating health disparities. By the end of the course, students will be able to:
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    Overview of Minority Health and Health Disparities in the US
    (2006) Thomas, Stephen B; Gilbert, Keon L
    Understanding health disparities involves a critical analysis of historical, political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental conditions that have produced an inequitable health status for racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. While we also recognize that disparities exist along socio-economic status, gender, sexual orientation and other factors, this class will focus on disparities in racial and ethnic minority communities. Issues of gender, SES and other factors will be examined as they intersect race and ethnicity, and further influence disparities in health. Minority health and health disparities have gained considerable attention from the recent publication of Healthy People 2010 Report, which lists as its two goals: 1) improve the quality of life for all citizens, and 2) eliminate health disparities. The purpose of this class is to introduce basic issues that underlie health disparities. We will gain a better understanding of the relationships of social and environmental phenomena and the health of minority communities. This course will include current literature and foster discussions that will examine health disparities, explore social and environmental determinants of those disparities, critically review measurement issues, and determine public health’s response to these disparities. Students should seek to critically reflect on their personal and professional roles in eliminating health disparities. By the end of the course, students will be able to:
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    The Color Line: Race Matters in the Elimination of Health Disparities
    (2001) Thomas, Stephen B
    The “color line” is not fixed but ripples through time, finding expression at distinct stages of our development as a nation. As the meaning of race has changed over time, its burdens and privileges have shifted among population groups. At one time in our history, for instance, the Irish and Italians were considered “non-White,” along with other immigrants who were not descendants of the early Anglo-Saxon Protestant settlers. In this issue of the Journal, Gerald Oppenheimer traces the color line through the course of American history.1 He demonstrates how the original language of White racial differences began with the anxious response of early Americans to waves of immigration, beginning in the 1840s when the Irish (or Celts) entered US ports, followed by nationals from Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe. Over time, the descendants of these “White ethnic groups” became the monolithic Caucasian race, the majority population, superior in all respects to the Black people of African descent.1
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    Tuskegee: From Science to Conspiracy to Metaphor [Editorial]
    (1999) Thomas, Stephen B; Curran, James W
    On May 16, 1997, in the East Room of the White House, President Bill Clinton issued a formal apology for the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male. Directing his words to the survivors, several of whom were over 90 years old, the President said, "...what was done cannot be undone, but we can end the silence. What the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry." The President placed the burden of responsibility for the abuse on the medical research establishment when he stated, "the people who ran the study at Tuskegee diminished the stature of man by abandoning the most basic ethical precepts. They forgot their pledge to heal and repair."1 Almost 70 years after the study began in 1932, 26 years after it was stopped in 1972, and 1 year after the Presidential apology, there remains a legacy of mistrust among African Americans toward the medical research establishment.2-7 In this issue of The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Giselle Corbie-Smith's essay argues that this mistrust is legitimate and she illustrates how the long shadow of Tuskegee is a barrier to increasing the participation of African Americans in clinical research. The Presidential apology and the Corbie-Smith essay both demonstrate the danger and the opportunity inherent in any attempt to draw lessons from the Tuskegee Study.