Addressing Health Disparities: A Conversation With Thomas LaVeist, PhD, Director of the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Abstract

The Innovations Team: The U.S. will soon be a country with a “Majority-Minority” population. What demographic shifts are driving this change? Thomas LaVeist: There is a combination of things behind the demographic shift. There is a rapidly declining white birth rate and higher minority birth rates. In general, minorities have first births at a younger age than whites, meaning they utilize a longer portion of their reproductive years. And, of course, there is immigration—mainly from Latin America and Asia. Looking at the demographic pyramid of the United States, a larger percentage of whites are in their nonreproductive years…