BACKGROUND Racial disparities in healthcare in the United States are widespread and have been well documented. However, it is unknown whether racial disparities exist in the use of blood transfusion for patients undergoing major surgery. METHODS We used the University HealthSystem Consortium database (2009-2011) to examine racial disparities in perioperative red blood cells (RBCs) transfusion...

We examined racial/ethnic disparities in depressive symptoms during pregnancy among a population-based sample of childbearing women in California (N = 24,587). We hypothesized that these racial/ethnic disparities would be eliminated when comparing women with similar incomes and neighborhood poverty environments. Neighborhood poverty trajectory descriptions were linked with survey data measuring...

OBJECTIVE To assess the impact of smoking disparities on health disparities, in terms of gap in life expectancy, in Taiwan cities and counties. METHODS Using the decomposition method of life expectancy, the contribution of each disease category to the life expectancy gap was quantitatively expressed as the number of years of life. The smoking attributable fraction (SAF) was calculated for eac...

Numerous Federal initiatives are addressing health and health care disparities. The ultimate goal is to achieve “a nation free of disparities in health and health care.” Social determinants of health remain mostly responsible for health/health care disparities among population groups within and between countries. In the United States, there is little evidence that disparities associated with su...

Few studies have examined disparities in adverse birth outcomes and compared contributing socioeconomic factors specifically between African-American and White teen mothers. This study examined intersections between neighborhood socioeconomic status (as defined by census-tract median household income), maternal age, and racial disparities in preterm birth (PTB) outcomes between African-American...

We thank Dr. Hicken for her commentary (1) on our article regarding disparities in the distributions of blood pressure across racial/ethnic groups in the United States (2). She correctly places our results, which largely show that proximate risk factors are inadequate to explain disparities, in the context of a larger body of literature that suggests that broader social determinants of health m...

Using data from the 1999-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n ~ 46,000), this study documents income disparities in the age patterning of cardiovascular conditions across the lifespan in the U.S. The conditions were assessed from laboratory test results, self-reports of medications used to treat specific conditions, and anthropometric measurements, allowing us to capture whe...

Background: Health disparities between American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) women and other races/ethnicities have long been noted. Obstetrician-Gynecologists (Ob-Gyns) play a significant role in well-woman care and are often the first and most frequent point of medical contact for women, particularly among minority and low-income women. Objective: This study aimed to assess Ob-Gyns’ knowledge...

PURPOSE Social disparities among youth have been recognized as an important influence on disease risk later in the life cycle. Despite this, social problems are seldom assessed in a clinical setting. The primary objective of our study was to evaluate the impact of social disparities on the health of youth. METHODS A self-directed, web-based screening system was used to identify social dispari...

BACKGROUND The Affordable Care Act includes provisions to standardize the collection of data on health care quality that can be used to measure disparities. We conducted a qualitative study among leaders of Medicaid managed care plans, that currently have access to standardized quality data stratified by race and ethnicity, to learn how they use it to address disparities. METHODS We conducted...