Large racial disparities in completion rates from substance abuse treatment programs in urban settings remain largely unexplained, although evidence is accumulating that neighborhood conditions may influence individual substance abuse patterns and consequences. Understanding racial disparities in alcohol treatment completion, in particular, is crucial to resolving health disparities because rac...

This article addresses two basic questions. First, it examines whether incarceration has a lasting impact on health functioning. Second, because blacks are more likely than whites to be exposed to the negative effects of the penal systemFincluding fractured social bonds, reduced labor market prospects, and high levels of infectious diseaseFit considers whether the penal system contributes to ra...

CONTEXT Overall quality of care and racial disparities in quality are important and related problems in health care, but their relationship has not been well studied. In the Medicare managed care program, broad improvements in quality have been accompanied by reduced racial gaps in processes of care, but substantial disparities in outcomes have persisted. OBJECTIVES To assess variations among...

Racial and ethnic health disparities inarguably exist in the United States. It is important to educate primary care clinicians regarding this topic because they have the ability to have an impact in the reduction of health disparities. This article presents the evidence that disparities exist, how clinicians contribute to these disparities, and what primary care clinicians can do to reduce disp...

The papers featured in this issue of the Health Care Financing Review were presented at "Eliminating Racial, Ethnic, and SES Disparities in Health Care: A Research Agenda for the New Millennium." This conference was held on October 15, 1999, in the Washington, DC., area and was co-sponsored by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)...

BACKGROUND Despite the disproportionate incarceration of minorities in the United States, little data exist investigating how being incarcerated contributes to persistent racial/ethnic disparities in chronic conditions. We hypothesized that incarceration augments disparities in chronic disease. METHODS Using data from the New York City Health and Nutrition Examination Study, a community-based...

There is little consensus about the meaning of the terms "health disparities," "health inequalities," or "health equity." The definitions can have important practical consequences, determining the measurements that are monitored by governments and international agencies and the activities that will be supported by resources earmarked to address health disparities/inequalities or health equity. ...

BACKGROUND Not enough is known about the national prevalence of racial/ethnic disparities in children's medical and dental care. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this work was to examine racial/ethnic disparities in medical and oral health, access to care, and use of services in a national sample. METHODS The National Survey of Children's Health was a telephone survey in 2003-2004 of a national ran...

BACKGROUND Kidney failure and associated mortality is one of the major components of racial disparities in the United States. OBJECTIVES The current study aimed to investigate the role of distal (socioeconomic status, SES), intermediate (chronic medical diseases), and proximal (health behaviors) factors that may explain Black-White disparities in mortality due to renal diseases. PATIENTS AN...

Despite a general acceptance of "race" as a social, rather than biological construct in the social sciences, racial health disparities research has given less consideration to the dimensions of race that may be most important for shaping persistent disparities in adult physical health status. In this study, we incorporate the social constructionist view that race is multidimensional to evaluate...