In recent years, numerous medical studies and reports have documented startling disparities between the health status of African Americans and White Americans. The literature is replete with evidence that one of the main causes of these racial disparities is the different treatment of patients of different racial groups. This Comment addresses the possibility that implicit cognitive bias, in th...

A huge literature has documented adult socioeconomic disparities in smoking but says less about how these disparities emerge over the life course. Building on findings that smoking among adolescents differs only modestly by parental SES, we utilize a life course perspective on social differentiation to help explain the widening disparities in smoking in young adulthood. Our theory suggests that...

BACKGROUND Black-white disparities in mortality persist after adjustment for socioeconomic status and health behaviors. We examined whether allostatic load, the physiological profile influenced by repeated or chronic life stressors, is associated with black-white mortality disparities independent of traditional sociobehavioral risk factors. METHODS We studied 4515 blacks and whites aged 35 to...

Typically, when the term “health disparity” is used, disparities in health related to or associated with race and/or ethnicity are what is meant. Disparities related to race and ethnicity are indeed the topic of this discussion, but there are many other types of health disparities that are often tightly linked to race/ethnic disparities, such as those related to sex, socioeconomic status, and r...

OBJECTIVES We sought to understand disparities in dental insurance coverage and dental care among US children by race/ethnicity, urban/rural residence, and socioeconomic status. METHODS Linked data from the National Survey of Children's Health and Area Resource File were analyzed (N = 89 071). Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to adjust for confounders. RESULTS A total of 22.1%...

OBJECTIVE To illustrate the complex patterns that emerge when race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and gender are considered simultaneously in health care disparities research and to outline the needed research to understand them by using disparities in lung cancer risks, treatment, and outcomes as an example. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS SES, gender, and race/ethnicity are social categories tha...

Health status and health care utilization among children are profoundly influenced by health insurance coverage. Uninsured and underinsured children are less likely than adequately insured children to receive preventive health care, have a usual source of care, and receive health care within a medical home that addresses their comprehensive needs. Gaps in health insurance coverage may lead to d...

Health disparities are "differences in the quality of health and health care across different populations." Potential disparities associated with race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status should be considered when attempting to develop models for survival and neurodevelopmental outcomes in neonates undergoing congenital heart surgery. Each of the aforementioned sociodemographic factors ...