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Health Disparities

Health Disparities

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This guide provides resources, both print and on-line, to gain a greater understanding of the issues surrounding social justice in America and how it impacts health disparities. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control, "health equity" is when everyone has the opportunity to be as healthy as possible. "Health Disparities" is defined as differences in health outcomes and specific causes of these differences among groups of people.The goal of Healthy People 2020 is to eliminate these disparities, achieve health equity and improve the health of all U.S. population groups.

  • As part of Healthy People 2020, Social Determinants of Health was developed to identify ways to create social and physical environments that promote good health for all. 
  • These social determinants of health are "conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks."

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Suggested search terms to find articles in PubMed:

Articles

Definition:

  • "Social justice encompasses economic justice. Social justice is the virtue which guides us in creating those organized human interactions we call institutions. In turn, social institutions, when justly organized, provide us with access to what is good for the person, both individually and in our associations with others. Social justice also imposes on each of us a personal responsibility to collaborate with others, at whatever level of the “Common Good” in which we participate, to design and continually perfect our institutions as tools for personal and social development." (Center for Economic and Social Justice)
  • Social justice depends on four essential fundamental goals: human rights, access, participation, and equity. Social justice can’t be achieved without these four principles. It also means that everyone’s human rights are respected and protected.
  • Here are some organizations that focus on social justice.

 

What is Cultural Humility?

The National Institutes of Health defines it as " a process of self-reflection and discovery in order to build honest and trustworthy relationships. It offers promise for researchers to understand and eliminate health disparities, a continual and disturbing problem necessitating attention and action on many levels."  

Here are a few articles about Cultural Humility:

Anti-Racism Resources

HEP Tool

  • The Health Equity and Prevention Primer (HEPP) from the Prevention Institute,  is a web-based training series for public health practitioners and advocates interested in achieving health, safety, and health equity through policy advocacy, community change, and multi-sector engagement.
 Search the EBSCO catalog for articles on ethnic diversity issues.  If you need assistance in finding articles, contact the librarian or if an article is not full text, request for an interlibrary loan. 

Search the EBSCO LGBTQ+ catalog for articles on LGBTQ+ related issues. If an article is not available in full text, please request an interlibrary loan to the librarian. 

Articles on Health Disparities

Ridley-Merriweather KE, Hoffmann-Longtin K, Owusu RK. Exploring How the Terms "Black" and "African American" May Shape Health Communication Research. Health Commun. 2023 May;38(6):1120-1126. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2021.1993533. Epub 2021 Oct 27. PMID: 34706614.

Gómez CA, Kleinman DV, Pronk N, Wrenn Gordon GL, Ochiai E, Blakey C, Johnson A, Brewer KH. Addressing Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health Through Healthy People 2030. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2021 Nov-Dec 01;27(Suppl 6):S249-S257. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000001297. PMID: 33729197; PMCID: PMC8478299.

Obra JK, Lin B, Đoàn LN, Palaniappan L, Srinivasan M. Achieving Equity in Asian American Healthcare: Critical Issues and Solutions. J Asian Health. 2021 Jul;1(1):e202103. doi: 10.59448/jah.v1i1.3. Epub 2021 Jul 14. PMID: 37872960; PMCID: PMC10593109.

Tools and Resources