Skin color has been proposed to contribute to race-based health disparities in the United States because of differences in ultraviolet (UV) light-induced vitamin D synthesis. The prediction of this hypothesis, herein named the UVD hypothesis, is that racial disparities in health outcomes are correlated with UV light availability. This paper investigates whether UV light availability is associat...

Binocular stereopsis is a powerful visual depth cue. To exploit it, the brain matches features from the two eyes' views and measures their interocular disparity. This works well for matte surfaces because disparities indicate true surface locations. However, specular (glossy) surfaces are problematic because highlights and reflections are displaced from the true surface in depth, leading to inf...

OBJECTIVES Eliminating health disparities is a goal of Healthy People 2010. In order to track progress toward this goal, we need improved methods for measuring disparity. The authors present the Index of Disparity (ID) as a summary measure of disparity. METHODS The ID, a modified coefficient of variation, was used to measure disparity across populations defined on the basis of race/ethnicity,...

To perform the jamming avoidance response (JAR), the weakly electric fish Gymnarchus detects time disparities on the order of microseconds between electrosensory signals received by electroreceptors in different parts of the body surface. This paper describes time-disparity thresholds of output neurons of the electrosensory lateral line lobe (ELL), where the representation of timing information...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Evidence for ethnic disparities in stroke incidence, severity, and mortality has continued to mount in recent years. However, the picture for disparities in acute management and rehabilitation remains more ambiguous. The objective of this report is to summarize current evidence from stroke epidemiology and studies focusing on disparities in stroke care and disability, sug...

BACKGROUND Cancer health disparities by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geography are a top public health priority. Breast and colorectal cancer, in particular, have been shown to exhibit significant disparities and contribute a large proportion of morbidity and mortality from cancer. In addition, breast and colorectal cancer offer targets for prevention and control, including nutrit...

This article analyzes different factors leading to economic and social disparities: the relationship between economic growth and inequality; the linkage between social disparities and environmental degradation; inequalities caused by globalization; gender discrimination and its impacts on economic growth; corruption damaging sound economic development and leading to more social disparities, etc...

Mental health disparities have received increased attention in the literature in recent years. After considering 165 different health disparity conditions, the Federal Collaborative for Health Disparities Research chose mental health disparity as one of four topics warranting its immediate national research attention. In this essay, we describe the challenges and opportunities encountered in de...

Health care is an important lever for moderating the effects of social determinants on health. We present a model that describes the relationships among social disadvantage, health-care disparities, and health disparities. Improving access to health care and enhancing patient-provider interaction are critical pathways for reducing disparities. Increasing the diversity of the public health and h...

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care is serving as a catalyst for the medical profession to re-examine the manner in which its institutions and training programs relate to cultural competence. This report found that racial and ethnic disparities exist in health care and that a lack of access to care does not fully exp...