INTRODUCTION The ability to track improvement against racial/ethnic disparities in mental health care is hindered by the varying methods and disparity definitions used in previous research. DATA Nationally representative sample of whites, blacks, and Latinos from the 2002 to 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Dependent variables are total, outpatient, and prescription drug mental health c...

Racial disparities in clinic attendance may contribute to racial disparities in plasma human immunodeficiency virus type 1 : HIV-1) RNA levels among HIV-positive patients in care. Data from 946 African American and 535 Caucasian patients receiving HIV care at the University of North Carolina Center for AIDS Research HIV clinic between January 1, 1999, and August 1, 2012, were used to estimate t...

BACKGROUND Health disparities are a persistent problem in many high-income countries. Health policymakers recognize the need to develop systematic methods for documenting and tracking these disparities in order to reduce them. The experience of the U.S., which has a well-established health disparities monitoring infrastructure, provides useful insights for other countries. MAIN BODY This arti...

The United States has set a national goal to eliminate health disparities. This article emphasizes the importance of food systems in generating and exacerbating health disparities in the United States and suggests avenues for reducing them. It presents a conceptual model showing how broad food system conditions interplay with community food environments-and how these relationships are filtered ...

We examined the effects of vertical-disparity gradients on apparent depth curvature of textured surfaces. In Experiment 1, vertical disparities induced expected curvatures when the surface had a horizontal disparity of < +/-40.34'. A central row of elements, lacking vertical disparities, ceased to have the same apparent curvature as the surface when the horizontal disparity between row and surf...

BACKGROUND To date, a counterfactual framework has not been used to study determinants of social inequalities in cancer. Considering the case of colorectal cancer, for which racial/ethnic differences in stage at diagnosis and survival are well documented, we quantify the extent to which black versus white survival disparities would be reduced had disparities in stage at diagnosis been eliminate...

Over the past decade, a rapidly expanding body of literature has demonstrated the existence of disparities in health and health care. While consensus has not emerged regarding the causes of disparities, they are generally thought to be related to sociocultural, behavioral, economic, environmental, biologic, or societal factors. To effectively address disparities, several authorities have sugges...

Health disparities are, first and foremost, those indicators of a relative disproportionate burden of disease on a particular population. Health inequities point to the underlying causes of the disparities, many if not most of which sit largely outside of the typically constituted domain of "health". The literature reviewed for this synthesis document indicates that time and again health dispar...

Obesity is a major risk factor for chronic disease and can decrease longevity, quality of life, and economic productivity. Compelling ethical, human rights, and practical reasons exist for addressing social disparities in obesity, which requires systematically applying a disparities perspective to obesity research and relevant policy. A disparities perspective guides us to consider multiple dim...