Health Disparities News and Research

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Health disparities (also called healthcare inequality in some countries) refer to gaps in the quality of health and health care across racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and socioeconomic groups.

Smoke-free workplace, tax hikes discourage youth from taking up smoking

Banning smoking in the workplace and increasing taxes on cigarettes have discouraged teens and young adults from taking up smoking, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Merced.

9 Sep 2015

Reducing SSB intake among children and adolescents associated with greater increase in HDL-C

In the first study to investigate blood lipid levels in association with consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in a racially and ethnically diverse sample of Boston area schoolchildren, researchers found there was an inverse association between SSB intake changes and HDL-cholesterol increases (HDL-C is the "good cholesterol").

3 Sep 2015

New UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center launched to protect communities from unhealthy exposures

A cross-disciplinary center focused on identifying connections between environmental toxins and disease has been established at UC Davis Health System with the ultimate goal of developing preventions and policies that protect communities from unhealthy exposures.

1 Sep 2015

Penn Medicine hospitals named among HRC Foundation's 'Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality' list

The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Hospital, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, and Chester County Hospital were announced among the 2015 class of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation's "Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality" list, and the first to be announced in the organization's rolling admissions in 2015.

1 Sep 2015

Smiling Brazil initiative sets example to other nations to eliminate healthcare disparities

Today, the International and American Associations for Dental Research (IADR/AADR) published a Discovery! article titled "10 Years of a National Oral Health Policy in Brazil: Innovation, Boldness and Numerous Challenges."

28 Aug 2015

New study offers first clinical recommendations for headache diagnosis in pregnant women

If a pregnant woman with high blood pressure and no history of headache suddenly develops a headache that quickly gets worse, she could be at risk for pregnancy complications, including preeclampsia, which put both the mother and fetus at risk.

20 Aug 2015

NIH-funded Growing Resilience project to evaluate health impacts of food gardens

With a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, University of Wyoming and Wind River Indian Reservation partners will evaluate the health impacts of food gardens with 100 Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho families who would like to try home gardening.

19 Aug 2015

RPCI researchers create outreach effort to improve public's participation in biomedical research

Roswell Park Cancer Institute researchers, together with input from African-American community leaders in Buffalo, have created an outreach effort that provides racial/ethnic minority and medically underserved communities with educational programs regarding the public's participation in biomedical research. The program is the basis of a recent study published by a team of local collaborators.

18 Aug 2015

Only 1 in 4 patients with ESRD in Georgia referred for kidney transplant evaluation

Only about one in four patients with end-stage renal disease in Georgia were referred for kidney transplant evaluation within 1 year of starting dialysis between 2005 and 2011, although there was substantial variability in referral among dialysis facilities, according to a study in the August 11 issue of JAMA.

12 Aug 2015

Case Western Reserve awarded federal grant for nutritious food access study

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $2.3 million to Case Western Reserve to lead a collaborative study of how changes in food options affect residents' nutritional choices and health over time.

11 Aug 2015

Einstein and Montefiore researchers receive $1.2 million grant to advance spinal cord injury research

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System have received a $1.2 million grant from New York State to advance their promising technology for treating paralysis and other effects of spinal cord injuries (SCI).

7 Aug 2015

Capital Impact Partners provides $27.5 million in financing to support underserved communities

Capital Impact Partners announced today that it provided nearly $27.5 million in financing to projects delivering social impact for underserved communities across the U.S. during the second quarter of 2015. These projects are expected to increase access to health care services, dignified aging options, healthy food, and education for low-income people in seven states, while also creating nearly 250 jobs.

4 Aug 2015

amfAR releases recommendations to help U.S. states to achieve goals of National HIV/AIDS Strategy

Major achievements have been made in the domestic HIV/AIDS response as a result of increased realignment and coordination of efforts at the federal level. However, that level of consistent coordination and alignment has yet to take place in most states. In an effort to identify what needs to be done, amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, in collaboration with the National HIV/AIDS Initiative at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law, has released a set of recommendations for how states across the U.S. can improve HIV prevention and care outcomes in an effort to achieve the goals identified within the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

31 Jul 2015

Innovative course helps make medical students more confident about dealing with health disparities

An innovative three-month elective course has helped make some first-year medical students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine more confident about dealing with health disparities they'll likely encounter as physicians, according to a follow-up study published online today in the journal Academic Medicine.

30 Jul 2015

Moffitt researchers find cancer healthcare disparities in LGBTQ community

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual, Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) community is a growing and medically-underserved minority population in the United States, with 3 to 12 percent of the population estimated to identify as LGBTQ.

29 Jul 2015

Global efforts help improve quality of nursing home care for racial, ethnic minority residents

A new study of nursing homes has found that, while disparities continue to exist, the quality of care in homes with higher concentrations of racial and ethnic minority residents has improved and that this progress appears to be linked to increases in Medicaid payments.

8 Jul 2015

Georgia State and Morehouse partner to reduce diabetes, cardiovascular disease rates in southwest Atlanta

The School of Public Health at Georgia State University has received nearly $400,000 in grant funds to support a three-year effort to reduce rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in African-American neighborhoods in southwest Atlanta.

7 Jul 2015

Study: Around 6% survive cardiac arrest outside of hospital setting

Cardiac arrest strikes almost 600,000 people each year, killing the vast majority of those individuals, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. Every year in the U.S., approximately 395,000 cases of cardiac arrest occur outside of a hospital setting, in which less than 6 percent survive. Approximately 200,000 cardiac arrests occur each year in hospitals, and 24 percent of those patients survive. Estimates suggest that cardiac arrest is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. behind cancer and heart disease.

1 Jul 2015

Study shows wide geographic variation in use of 'clotbuster' for stroke treatment

It looks like a crazy quilt spread over the continent. But a new map of emergency stroke care in America shows just how much of a patchwork system we still have for delivering the most effective stroke treatment.

27 Jun 2015

Chronic disease, mental health issues affect low-income African-Americans, Latinos and Hispanics

Chronic disease and mental health issues disproportionately affect low-income African-Americans, Latinos and Hispanics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two new studies by the UCLA Center for Culture, Trauma and Mental Health Disparities shed light on the causes and impacts of this disparity.

26 Jun 2015