Research Paper On Health Disparities

What are Health Disparities and why do they matter?
As much as those in society may like to believe that all people, no matter their skin color, have equal health outcomes and equal access to quality health care, this is simply not the case. The fact is that health disparities, which are health or health-care differences among racial-ethnic groups, exist. Health disparities can also be defined as differences in morbidity, mortality, and access to health care among different populations based on criteria like socioeconomic status, gender, and race/ethnicity [1]. Knowing that these disparities exist, we can begin to analyze why they may be occurring. One of the main contributors to this phenomenon that is deeply rooted into the system is the

One downfall of the system is a lack of diversity in care providers. Evidence shows that 13% of the U.S. population is black, but only 4% of U.S. physicians are black [4]. Diversity in the health care workforce is important because minority doctors are more likely to practice in underserved areas treating minority patients [6], which increases access to a provider for these groups. Also, having diverse providers in the workplace is an organizational way to provide education to other providers who may not have been exposed to different cultures and beliefs, increasing awareness among all providers about the necessity to remain culturally sensitive [7]. However, the data shows that most medical school graduates continue to be white and the number of black men completing medical school has been trending downwards since 1997. This deficit in minority care providers can be attributed to a decreased ability for schools in areas with high populations of minorities to prepare students for college, a lack of federal support in such areas, and the financial inability for these students to pursue higher education [6]. As seen in Figure 2, by a very large margin, white medical school graduates are the majority (green) while black (purple), Hispanic (blue), and American Indian (red) graduates are greatly underrepresented [7]. Not only are there racial disparities in the distribution of medical students, but they also exist in medical school faculty. This is significant because it creates an environment in which black medical students lack a significant presence of role models in their educational setting. A study described in Ansell et al. showed that black faculty members were less likely to have been retained than any other group. They were also less likely to be promoted, to hold senior faculty or administrative positions, and