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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Subject: search.filters.subject.ethnic groups

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 28
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    Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Pain Management in the United States
    (2006) Ezenwa, Miriam O.; Ameringer, Suzanne; Ward, Sandra E.; Serlin, Ronald C.
    Abstract available at publisher's website.
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    The Effects of Financial Pressures on Adherence and Glucose Control Among Racial/Ethnically Diverse Patients with Diabetes
    (2011) Ngo-Metzger, Quyen; Sorkin, Dara H.; Billimek, John; Greenfield, Sheldon; Kaplan, Sherrie H.
    Abstract available at publisher's website.
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    Using Focus Groups to Develop a Heart Disease Prevention Program for Ethnically Diverse, Low-Income Women
    (2000) Gettleman, Lynn; Winkleby, Marilyn A.
    Abstract available from publisher's web site.
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    Impact of a Culturally Appropriate Intervention on Breast and Cervical Screening among Native Hawaiian Women,
    (2000) Gotay, C
    Abstract available at publisher's web site.
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    Inequality in quality: addressing socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic disparities in health care.
    (2000) Fiscella, K; Franks, P; Gold, M R; Clancy, C M
    Socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in health care quality have been extensively documented. Recently, the elimination of disparities in health care has become the focus of a national initiative. Yet, there is little effort to monitor and address disparities in health care through organizational quality improvement. After reviewing literature on disparities in health care, we discuss the limitations in existing quality assessment for identifying and addressing these disparities. We propose 5 principles to address these disparities through modifications in quality performance measures: disparities represent a significant quality problem; current data collection efforts are inadequate to identify and address disparities; clinical performance measures should be stratified by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic position for public reporting; population-wide monitoring should incorporate adjustment for race/ethnicity and socioeconomic position; and strategies to adjust payment for race/ethnicity and socioeconomic position should be considered to reflect the known effects of both on morbidity. JAMA. 2000;283:2579-2584
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    Ten largest racial and ethnic health disparities in the United States based on Healthy People 2010 Objectives.
    (2007) Keppel, Kenneth G
    A consistent framework has been developed for measuring health disparities and making comparisons across indicators with regard to the public health goals of Healthy People 2010. Disparities are measured as the percent difference from the best group rate, with all indicators being expressed in terms of adverse events. The 10 largest health disparities for each of five US racial and ethnic groups are identified here. There are both similarities and differences in the largest health disparities. New cases of tuberculosis and drug-induced death rates are among the largest health disparities for four of the five racial and ethnic groups. However, drug-induced death is the only indicator among the 10 largest disparities that is shared by both Black and White non-Hispanic populations.
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    Do lifestyle or social factors explain ethnic/racial inequalities in breast cancer survival?
    (2009) McKenzie, Fiona; Jeffreys, Mona
    Despite numerous studies documenting ethnic inequalities in breast cancer survival between minority and majority ethnic groups worldwide, reasons for these inequalities remain unclear. The authors performed a systematic review of published literature to identify studies that investigated the explanatory power of smoking, alcohol consumption, body mass index (BMI), and socioeconomic position (SEP) on ethnic inequalities in breast cancer survival. Sixteen studies were included in the review. From 5 studies, the authors found that differences in breast cancer survival between ethnic groups may be in part explained by BMI, but there was little evidence to implicate smoking or alcohol consumption as explanatory factors of this inequality. From 12 studies, the authors found that SEP explains part of the ethnic inequality in all-cause survival but that it was not evident for breast-cancer-specific survival. SEP explains more of the disparities among African-American versus white women in the United States compared with other ethnic comparisons. Furthermore, given social patterning of BMI and other lifestyle habits, it is possible that results for SEP and BMI are measuring the same effect. In this review, the authors make suggestions regarding the role of epidemiology in facilitating further research to better inform the development of effective policies to address ethnic differences in survival.
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    Built environments and obesity in disadvantaged populations.
    (2009) Lovasi, Gina S; Hutson, Malo A; Guerra, Monica; Neckerman, Kathryn M
    In the United States, health disparities in obesity and obesity-related illnesses have been the subject of growing concern. To better understand how obesity-related health disparities might relate to obesogenic built environments, the authors conducted a systematic review of the published scientific literature, screening for studies with relevance to disadvantaged individuals or areas, identified by low socioeconomic status, black race, or Hispanic ethnicity. A search for related terms in publication databases and topically related resources yielded 45 studies published between January 1995 and January 2009 with at least 100 participants or area residents that provided information on 1) the built environment correlates of obesity or related health behaviors within one or more disadvantaged groups or 2) the relative exposure these groups had to potentially obesogenic built environment characteristics. Upon consideration of the obesity and behavioral correlates of built environment characteristics, research provided the strongest support for food stores (supermarkets instead of smaller grocery/convenience stores), places to exercise, and safety as potentially influential for disadvantaged groups. There is also evidence that disadvantaged groups were living in worse environments with respect to food stores, places to exercise, aesthetic problems, and traffic or crime-related safety. One strategy to reduce obesity would involve changing the built environment to be more supportive of physical activity and a healthy diet. Based on the authors' review, increasing supermarket access, places to exercise, and neighborhood safety may also be promising strategies to reduce obesity-related health disparities.
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    Health disparities and advertising content of women's magazines: a cross-sectional study
    (2005) Duerksen, Susan C; Mikail, Amy; Tom, Laura; Patton, Annie; Lopez, Janina; Amador, Xavier; Vargas, Reynaldo; Victorio, Maria; Kustin, Brenda; Sadler, Georgia
    Background Disparities in health status among ethnic groups favor the Caucasian population in the United States on almost all major indicators. Disparities in exposure to health-related mass media messages may be among the environmental factors contributing to the racial and ethnic imbalance in health outcomes. This study evaluated whether variations exist in health-related advertisements and health promotion cues among lay magazines catering to Hispanic, African American and Caucasian women. Methods Relative and absolute assessments of all health-related advertising in 12 women's magazines over a three-month period were compared. The four highest circulating, general interest magazines oriented to Black women and to Hispanic women were compared to the four highest-circulating magazines aimed at a mainstream, predominantly White readership. Data were collected and analyzed in 2002 and 2003. Results Compared to readers of mainstream magazines, readers of African American and Hispanic magazines were exposed to proportionally fewer health-promoting advertisements and more health-diminishing advertisements. Photographs of African American role models were more often used to advertise products with negative health impact than positive health impact, while the reverse was true of Caucasian role models in the mainstream magazines. Conclusion To the extent that individual levels of health education and awareness can be influenced by advertising, variations in the quantity and content of health-related information among magazines read by different ethnic groups may contribute to racial disparities in health behaviors and health status.
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    Socioeconomic status and cancers of the female breast and reproductive organs: a comparison across racial/ethnic populations in Los Angeles County, California (United States)
    (1998) Liu, Lihua; Deapen, Dennis; Bernstein, Leslie
    OBJECTIVES: Despite the fact that socioeconomic status (SES) has been shown to have important implications in health related issues, population-based cancer registries in the United States do not routinely collect SES information. This study presents a model to estimate the SES of cancer patients in the registry database. METHODS: At the Los Angeles Cancer Surveillance Program (CSP), we developed a model to estimate each cancer patient's SES from aggregate measurements of the census tract of residence (n = 1,640) at time of diagnosis. We then applied the SES estimates to observe the relationship between SES and risk of cancers of the female breast and reproductive organs including cancers of the ovary, cervix uteri, and corpus uteri. The analyses were performed on the cumulative records (n = 127,819) of cancer patients diagnosed between 1972 and 1992 in Los Angeles County, California, for the mutually exclusive racial/ethnic groups of non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanic Whites, Blacks, Asians, and persons of other ethnic groups. RESULTS: We found SES is positively associated with female breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and cancer of the corpus uteri, but inversely associated with cervical cancer. These SES trends were quite consistent across age groups among non-Hispanic White women. Variations by race/ethnicity in the SES patterns were also found, with Asians exhibiting little association. CONCLUSIONS: Our model of measuring SES is sufficiently sensitive to capture the trends. Adopting the aggregate approach to measure SES in population-based registry data appears to be useful.