Racial and ethnic health disparities inarguably exist in the United States. It is important to educate primary care clinicians regarding this topic because they have the ability to have an impact in the reduction of health disparities. This article presents the evidence that disparities exist, how clinicians contribute to these disparities, and what primary care clinicians can do to reduce disp...

Empirical evidence suggests that regional disparities in incomes are often very high, that these disparities do not necessarily disappear as economies grow and that these disparities are itself an important driver of growth. We use a novel approach based on multilevel modeling to decompose the sources of spatial disparities in incomes among households in Burkina Faso. We show that spatial dispa...

BACKGROUND Despite extensive documentation of racial and ethnic disparities in care, provider awareness of disparities has been thought to be low. To be effective, educational efforts for physicians must consider providers' knowledge and beliefs about what causes disparities and what can be done about them. METHODS AND RESULTS We conducted a Web-based survey of 344 cardiologists to determine ...

Racial disparities in health care and health outcomes are a disturbing feature of the American health care system. Efforts to reduce or ameliorate these disparities must be informed by an understanding of the factors that underlie and contribute to them. The papers in this issue are based on a recent conference that was held at the University of Chicago to address this problem. Socioeconomic st...

Racial disparities in health care have been well-documented, although the reasons for many of these disparities remain obscure. An intriguing possibility is that geographic factors--the places where certain groups live or obtain health care--contribute to racial disparities, especially in the use of new medical technologies. This Issue Brief examines racial disparities in the use of life-saving...

Disparities in healthcare represent a failure in the equity domain of quality. Although disparities have been well documented, little has been written about how hospitals might use improved data collection and quality improvement techniques to eliminate disparities. This article describes early findings from the planning phase of the first hospital-based disparities collaborative. The authors a...

Healthy People 2010 identified elimination of health disparities as a national priority. Few studies in the occupational therapy literature document health disparities. The purpose of this study was to examine the evidence on U.S. health disparities with specific relevance to occupational therapy and by racial/ethnic groups and income levels. National survey data were used to identify variables...

Racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in health care and health outcomes are well documented. Disparities research is evolving from documenting these disparities, to understanding their causes and mechanisms, and finally to conducting interventional research to reduce or eliminate disparities. Unfortunately, few studies to date have demonstrated substantial reductions in health outcomes...