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Understanding Health Disparities

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(November 2004, pdf format, 709 KB)
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In Ohio and around the country, minority populations have higher rates of chronic disease, higher mortality, and poorer health outcomes whites. Political and social leaders from across the country—and from all aspects of the political spectrum, from Republican to Democrat to independent—have recognized this as a major problem that our nation's health care and political system must address. To help create a deeper understanding on the issue of health disparities, the Health Policy Institute of Ohio has now published Understanding Health Disparities. This comprehensive report examines all aspects of health discrepancies—and gives a special focus on the issue in Ohio.

Topics in the paper include:

• What is meant by disparities;
• Examples of disparities (with a focus on cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes/kidney disease, HIV/AIDS, and infant mortality);
• A framework for health disparities;
• Disparities in access to care;
• Disparities in health delivery;
• And how to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities.