This page features news, articles and discussions related to health disparities.

New!        Arizona Health Disparities Legislative Update
              
New!        RWJF and PCH Speaking Together

• AADE Position Statement - Cultural Sensitivity and Diabetes Education: Recommendations for Diabetes Educators
   

• A Data Collection Toolkit for Health Insurance Plans and Health Care Organizations to Address Disparities in Health
   

• A Guide for Advancing Family-Centered and Culturally and Linguistically Competent Care
   

• A Guide to Integrating Community Health Workers into Health Disparities Collaboratives
   

• A Multicultural Action Plan to Achieve Health Parity
   

• A Report Card on Comprehensive Equity: Racial Gaps in the Nation's Youth Outcome
  
  It estimates the black-white achievement gaps in each of these aspects of education and youth development, and illustrates the types of data gathering which should be undertaken for ongoing measurement of these gaps. The "achievement gap" usually refers to the difference between black and white students' basic skills test scores. But education and youth development consists of more than basic skills -- it also includes critical thinking, social skills and a work ethic, citizenship and community responsibility, physical health, emotional health, appreciation of the arts and literature, and preparation for skilled work. Greater equity in outcomes requires narrowing the achievement gap in each of these areas.
   

• Amigos en Salud®/Friends in Health™
  
  The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) supports Pfizer Health Solutions Inc’s (PHS) efforts to reduce health disparities through a community health program, Amigos en Salud®/Friends in Health™, which is now available as an online toolkit for Community Health Centers around the country. The free materials illustrate how to implement a low-cost, community-based program to reduce health disparities among Hispanic and African American people with diabetes.
   

• And the Journey Continues: Achieving Cultural and Linguistic Competence in Systems Serving Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs and their Families
  
  The newly published report by the National Center for Cultural Competence offers insights and lessons learned and provides success stories from State Title V Children with Special Health Care Needs programs.
   

• An estimated quarter of uninsured U.S. residents are eligible but not enrolled in public health insurance programs
   

• Arizona Primary Care Program - Serving the NOTCH GROUP Briefing Summary
   

• Arizona Public Health Association's legislative priorities of 2006

• Breast Cancer Mortality Report: Closing the Gaps in Eight Communities
  
  The report reveals shocking racial disparities in breast cancer mortality rates, tremendous barriers that prevent low-income women from receiving care, and disturbing gaps in the implementation of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act that enable states to refuse treatment for women based on where they are screened.
   

• CDC: Eliminating Racial & Ethnic Health Disparities
   

• CDC Fact Sheet on Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities
  
  Key statistics are provided for African-Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, Asian Americans, and American Indians/Alaska Natives. Information is provided for one or more of these groups on such health issues as access to healthcare, asthma, cancer, diabetes, adult immunizations, hepatitis, infant mortality, injuries, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), smoking and tuberculosis.
   

• CDC's National Center for Health Statistics Published Health, United States, 2006
  
  The report includes 147 detailed trend tables organized around four subject areas: health status and determinants, health-care use, health-care resources, and health-care expenditures. Many of the trend tables provide information on racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in health.
   

• Childhood, Youth Cancer Survival Factors Vary by Race, Follow-Up Care
   

• Closing the Gap - Solutions to Race-Based Health Disparities
   

• Closing the Mental Health Gap: Eliminating Disparities in Treatment for Latinos
   

• Collection and Use of Race and Ethnicity Data for Quality Improvement: 2006 AHIP-RWJF Survey of Health Insurance Plans
   

• Commonwealth Fund Report Suggests Medical Residents Lack Sufficient Cross-Cultural Training
   

• The Commonwealth Fund's Top 10 Health Policy Stories of 2006
   

• Communication Consensus Report: Improving Communication - Improving Care
  
  This report describes the importance of communication to health care and how organizations can take steps to ensure effective, patient-centered communication.
   

• The Community Health Promotion Handbook: Action Guides to Improve Community Health
   

• The Community Health Worker's Sourcebook - A Training Manual for Preventing Heart Disease and Stroke
   

• Creating Equity Report: A Guide for Hospitals
   

• Database to Assist Physicians and Others in Providing Improved Language Access and Cultural Competent Health Care
  
  Medical Leadership Council on Cultural Proficiency has unveiled a database designed to assist physicians and others in providing improved language access and culturally competent health care. With more than 350 initial entries, the searchable, internet-based, free-to-the-public database includes contact information for interpreters, nonprofit organizations, hospitals, public health departments and others that provide health information and services in languages other than English. Users, including physicians, nurses, social service workers, patients and the general public, can search for listings by county, by language, or by type of service. Services and materials address various topics, including diabetes and nutrition, in languages ranging from Arabic to Vietnamese. The database can be accessed at: http://medicalleadership.org/resource_interpreter.aspx
   

• Demographics and Health Care Access and Utilization of Limited-English-Proficient and English-Proficient Hispanics
  
  The report is based on data from the 2004 Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC). Key findings include educational and health insurance disparities, as well as disparities in usual source of care and health care utilization.
   

• Diabetes Afflicting More in US Asian Population
   

• Disparities in Health and Health Care among Medicare Beneficiaries
   

• Diverse Patient Population Pose Challenges for U.S. Hospitals
   

• Eliminating Health Disparities, Achieving Equity
   

• Engendering Change: Transforming Gender Roles in Asian & Pacific Islander Communities
   

• Eradicating Low Health Literacy: The First Public Health Movement of the 21st Century: Overview White Paper
  
  Explores how health literacy is defined, the scope of the problem, methods of identification, the extent of its consequence, the range of solutions and possible responses that the nation could take as it attempts to address the first public health crisis of the 21st century. Discusses the warning signs of low health literacy, Health literacy tests Taking Culture and Context into consideration, Guidelines to ensuring cultural sensitivity, Effective Health Communication, health Care Provider Tools, Pfizer’s Commitment to Health Literacy, Principles for clear health communication, and Future Directions.
   

• Experts said that the Medicare program should do more to combat racial and ethnic dispartieis in healthcare, it was just not clear how to go about it.
   

• Factline: Tracking Health in Underserved Communities
  
  http://www.meharry.org/Fl/index.html is a website sponsored by the National Library of Medicine and Meharry Medical College that highlights health disparities in underserved communities. It is organized into five major areas: Access to Health, Mental Health, Minority Health, Women's Health, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Within each major area, there are several topic pages, including cancer, depression, obstetrical care, and barriers to care for immigrants.
   

• From Policy to Action: Addressing Racial and Ethnic Disparities at the Ground Level
   

• Geneticizing Disease - Implications for Racial Health Disparities
  
  It is a report by Jamie Brooks and Meredith King of the Center for American Progress to detail racial and ethnic health disparities and how the emergence of race-based medicine can be dangerous.
   

• Guidance on the Classification of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders
   

• Health Care Language Services Implementation Guide
   

• Health Centers: America’s Primary Care Safety Net
  
  The report describes the history of safety net health center programs; safety net health centers’ role in providing a medical home; the model of care used, and how connections are sustained between primary care associations, offices, and other partners.
   

• Health Characteristics of the Asian Adult Population: United States, 2004-2006
   

• Health Risks and Disparities Experienced by Hispanic Youth
  
  It provides an introduction to health disparities, including health risk behaviors among Hispanic youth, highlights factors that contribute to health disparities, and offers strategies to address health and educational disparities.
   

• The Health Literacy of America’s Adults: Results from The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy
  
  The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) assessed the English literacy of adults in the United States, and included items designed to measure their health literacy. The health literacy scale and tasks were guided by the definition of health literacy used by the Institute of Medicine and Healthy People 2010. The report provides information on demographic characteristics and health literacy as well as overall health, health insurance coverage, and sources of health information.
   

• The Health Research and Educational Trust Disparities Toolkit
  
  The Toolkit is a Web-based tool that provides hospitals, health systems, clinics, and health plans information and resources for systematically collecting race, ethnicity, and primary language data from patients.
   

• HepB.tv Offers Hepatitis B Programming for Asian Americans
  
  HepB.tv is the first online television network for hepatitis B. It offers original and syndicated video and audio programming to educate Asian Americans about hepatitis B, and also provides resources to raise public awareness of the need for testing, vaccination, and treatment.
  
  Be sure to recommend this cutting-edge resource to patients who might be interested in its content. To visit HepB.tv, go to: http://www.hepb.tv 
   

• Hispanic Immigrants Seek Health Care from Their Own
   

• Hospitals, Languages, and Culture: A Snapshot of the Nation
  
  It is a three year cross-sectional qualitative study to explore how 60 hospitals across the country provide health care to culturally and linguistically diverse patient populations.
   

• How Many Uninsured? A Resource Guide for Community Estimates
   

• Improving the Health Care Response to Abuse in Native Communities
   

• Improving Outcomes: Blueprint for a National AIDS Plan for the United States
  
  The report finds that the U.S. has not made sufficient progress against HIV/AIDS, especially among blacks. It makes several recommendations for the fight against the disease, including the need to focus prevention and treatment efforts among blacks. The report also says that there is a need to implement new approaches, focus federal funding on concrete results, and increase the use of evidence-based, cost-effective strategies that have been shown to be successful.
   

• Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006 Report
   

• Information Sharing Could Help Institutions Identify and Address Challenges That Some Asian American and Pacific Islander Students Face
   

• Kaiser Family Foundation Launches Free News Report on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
   

• Key Facts: Race Ethnicity and Medical Care
  
  The report, by Kaiser Family Foundation in June 2003 provides a broad range of information on race/ethnicity, health, health insurance coverage, preventive and primary care, and specialty care related to heart disease, cancer, asthma and HIV/AIDS.
   

• Key Health Disparities-Focused Legislation Introduced in the 110th Congress
  
  Key Health Disparities-Focused Legislation Introduced in the 110th Congress highlights more than a dozen of these legislative initiatives, such as the Minority Health Improvement and Health Disparity Elimination Act and the Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2007. While a number of other bills introduced this year may impact health disparities and/or affect minority health, this compendium covers legislation written specifically to address racial and ethnic health disparities.
   

• Language Use and English Speaking Ability 2000 Census Brief
   

• National Newspaper Coverage of Minority Health Disparities
   

• 2007 National Health Care Disparities Report
   

• New Report Reveals African Americans May Lack Key Nutrients for Optimal Health
   

• New 50-State Profiles on Family Economic Security
   

• Obesity and American Indians/Alaska Natives
  
  The report addresses the prevalence of obesity among American Indians/Alaska Natives, its contributing factors, the consequences of obesity, and published research studies on obesity intervention.
   

• One Size Does Not Fit All: Meeting the Health Care Needs of Diverse Populations
   

• The Prescription Drug Safety Net: Access to Pharmaceuticals for the Uninsured
  
  The background paper provides an overview of organized programs that provide access to prescription drugs for the uninsured. Focuses on manufacturer-sponsored pharmacy assistance programs (PAPs) and the federal 340B drug pricing program.
   

• Preventing Youth Suicide in Rural America: Recommendations to States
   

• Proceedings of the Surgeon General's Workshop on Improving Health Literacy
   

• Providing Language Services in State and Local Health-Related Benefits Offices: Examples From the Field
   

• Racial & Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare: A Public Opinion Update
  
  Key findings from this national telephone survey of 2,000 U.S. adults by Princeton Survey Research Associates, which was conducted for Aetna and the National Conference for Community and Justice, include:
  - Current perceptions of Americans about racism in healthcare;
  - Differences in perceptions between African Americans, Hispanics and White Americans;
  - The extent to which these three groups considered racism a barrier to care; and
  - Their perceptions about differences, if any, in the quality of medical care received by people
     of color and White Americans.
   

• Racial and Ethnic Disparities in U.S. Health Care: A Chartbook
  
  The report provides data on demographics and racial/ethnic disparities in health status, mortality, access to health care, insurance coverage, and quality of care and explores underlying dynamics involving location and quality of health care providers for minorities.
   

• Racial, Ethnic and Primary Language Data Collection in the Health Care System:
  An Assessment of Federal Policies and Practices
   

• Reported Health and Health-influencing Behaviors Among Urban American Indians and Alaska Natives
   

• Rural Definitions: National and State Indicator Tables
  
  Rural Definitions: National and State Indicator Tables, conducted by USDA Economic Research Service, provides selected socioeconomic indicators (such as population, education, poverty, etc.) for each definition of rural, by State and the U.S., in one Excel file allowing the user to compare a particular indicator across the different definitions of rural.
   

• Select Articles – “Disparities in Health: Expanding the Focus” in Health Affairs
   

• Senator Byron Dorgon (D-N.D.) Pushes Access to Indian Health Clinics
   

• Speaking Together: National Language Services Network
   

• State Health Access Profile: A Chartbook of Health Care Access Indicators for States
   

• Unequal Health Outcomes in the United States
  
  The report argues that the United State has the opportunity to do more to address health disparities.
   

• Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care
  
  This landmark study, by Institute of Medicine in 2002 found that U.S. racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to receive unequal treatment, and experience a lower quality of health services. They are also less likely to receive kidney and heart transplants, and are more likely to receive certain less desirable procedures, such as lower limb amputations. The report also provides recommendations to attack the problem, which often results in poorer health care for millions. The report also notes general correlations with socioeconomic inequality as well as a history of racial and ethnic discrimination.
   

• US Cancer Deaths Decline for Second Straight Year, Though Mortality Rates Still Higher for Blacks Than White

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