At the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Society for Prevention Research in Washington, D.C., the director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)—Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, MD—shared findings from the institute’s latest research priorities: disparities and tobacco control.

Following are 10 Fast Facts about disparities from the NIMHD, which is one of the 27 institutes and centers within the National Institutes of Health.

  1. Significant disparities exist in medical education; of all medical school graduates in 2014, only six percent were African American, five percent were Latino and less than one percent were American Indian or Alaska Native.
  2. “Socio-economic status matters”; lower income households are three times more likely to die “from anything” than households earning more than $115,000.
  3. Life expectancy for American Indians/Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians from 2007 to 2009 was 68 years for men and 74.3 years for women.
  4. The richest one percent of the population lives either 10.1 years (women) or 14.6 years (men) longer than the poorest one percent.
  5. Lower income people living in a wealthier area have a higher mortality rate than lower income people living in a poorer area.
  6. Compared with metro areas, non-metro areas have a higher age-adjusted death rate and a greater percentage of potentially excess deaths from the five leading causes of death.
  7. Food and housing security are much lower among African Americans and Latinos.
  8. Second-hand smoke disproportionately affects minorities.
  9. African Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives and multi-race populations had a higher rate of cigarette smoking in 2015 than other race/ethnic groups.
  10. African American men have disproportionately higher rates of lung cancer, even after adjusting for the intensity of cigarettes smoked.

Recent studies have shown that despite the improvements in the overall health of the country, racial and ethnic minorities experience a lower quality of healthcare—they are less likely to receive routine medical care and face higher rates of morbidity and mortality than non-minorities.

Access the National Healthcare Quality & Disparities Report for additional information. This annual report is produced by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Source: QIO News; July 2017

Related Resources

Addressing Health Care Disparities: Recommended Goal, Guiding Principles and Key Strategies for Comprehensive Policies. (PDF) Find information on the goals of the Commission to Reduce Health Care Disparities, the principles that guide all policy work in this area and a full list of commission members.

Development of a Measure of Physician Engagement in Addressing Racial and Ethnic Health Care Disparities. (PDF) Review the research results that examine the engagement levels of a sample of physicians in addressing gaps in health care and understand how these results can be used to increase physician engagement at a group or institution level.

Reducing Health Disparities: Where Are We Now? (PDF) Discover how the field of healthcare disparities has evolved in recent years by examining emerging perspectives, reviewing progress and current activity and looking at outstanding needs.