OBJECTIVE To examine racial/ethnic differences in Medicare beneficiary experiences with Medicare Part D prescription drug (PD) coverage. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING 2008 Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems survey of U.S. Medicare beneficiaries. STUDY DESIGN Surveys were administered by mail with phone follow-up to a nationally representative sample (61% response rate). T...

BACKGROUND Children born very low birth weight (VLBW) are at risk for low health-related quality of life (HRQoL), compared with normal-birth-weight peers, and racial disparities may compound the difference. Asthma is the most pervasive health problem among VLBW children and is also more common among black than white children, partly due to unfavourable environmental exposures. This study explor...

Marked disparities in health indicators exist between White men and racial/ethnic minority men in the United States. These disparities begin early in life and persist through the life course until advanced ages. Not only do minority men have poor outcomes across a broad variety of health conditions when compared with White men, but they are also less likely to interact and engage with the healt...

OBJECTIVE Previous research suggests that insufficient access to health care may contribute to health disparities in arthritis-related outcomes. The purpose of this article is to document whether racial disparities in health status, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and activity limitations exist for individuals living with arthritis who have access to a primary care physician. METHODS ...

The science of eliminating racial health disparities requires a clear understanding of the underlying social processes that drive persistent differences in health outcomes by self-identified race. Understanding these social processes requires analysis of cultural notions of race as these are instantiated in institutional policies and practices that ultimately contribute to health disparities. R...

National initiatives in the United States call for health research that addresses racial/ethnic disparities. Although grounded theory (GT) research has the potential to contribute much to the understanding of the health experiences of people of color, the extent to which it has contributed to health disparities research is unclear. In this article we describe a project in which we reviewed 44 G...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Stroke is a major cause of long-term disability in the United States. This study examined the national impact of stroke on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and disparities in HRQoL across different demographic groups. METHODS Combined 2000 and 2002 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data were used, which include quality-of-life measures based on the short-form gener...

Gender differences in adult health are well documented, but only recently has research begun to investigate how race and ethnicity condition gendered health disparities. This paper contributes to this line of inquiry by assessing gender differences in morbidity across five major US racial and ethnic populations. Using data from the 1997-2001 waves of the National Health Interview Survey, the an...