Disparities in Health
Last updated August 2009
Life expectancy and overall health have improved in recent years for most Americans, thanks in part to an increased focus on preventive medicine and advances in medical technology. While Americans as a group are healthier and living longer, disparities in health persist. For a number of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, good health is more difficult to attain, because appropriate care is often associated with an individual's economic status, race, and gender.
Health disparities refer to the gaps in quality of health status and health care that exist across groups. For example, American Indian Women are 1.9 times as likely to die from cervical cancer compared to white women and African Americans are 1.5 times as likely as non-Hispanic whites to have high blood pressure. The Federal Health Resources and Services Administration defined health disparities as "population-specific differences in the presence of disease, health outcomes, or access to health care."
The causes are numerous, but health disparities are believed to be the result of the complex interaction among inadequate access to care, genetic variations, substandard quality of care, social-determinants of health, and specific health behaviors.
Health disparities are getting the attention of legislatures across the country. State policymakers are asking important questions: how are disparities in health eliminated? What is the role of state lawmakers in reducing disparities? How does my state compare to other states? What strategies decrease disparities in a cost effective way? Policymakers are responding to these questions with varying kinds of legislation.
Legislative Tracking Resources | Statewide Plans to Reduce Health Disparities | Life Expectancy
Legislative Tracking Resources
Statewide Plans to Reduce Health Disparities
Since 2005, 35 states have created statewide strategic plans to address health disparities. The plans are designed to reduce health disparities among minority populations. These plans corrdinate efforts by different entities within the states. Of the 35 states with plans, 18 are legislative initiatives, 16 states have plans that are initiatives of the Department of Health and Pennsylvania has a plan created by a governor's task force.
NOTE: Please see NCSL State Profiles for more information on state plans and State Minority Health Offices.
Life Expectancy
Although life expectancy from 2000 to 2006 gradually increased for all populations in the United States, ethnic minority groups continue to have significantly shorter life expectancies when compared to their white counterparts. Life expectancy for black men is approximately 5 years less than that of white men. The gap in life expectancy is mostly attributed to the disparities that exist within health and access to health care. Efforts to reduce disparities by policymakers often strive to increase life expectancy for all populations, especially for minority populations who share disproportionate burdens of diseases that contribute to shorter life spans.
Life Expectancy at Age 65 Years, by Sex
and Race --- United States, 2000--2006*
* Data for 2000--2006 are based on a newly revised methodology and might differ from figures previously published. More information on the revised method is available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_14.pdf.
Source: National Vital Statistics Report , Deaths: final data for 2006, April 2009. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_14.pdf.
This webpage is funded through the support of The US Department of Health and Human Services, HRSA, Office of Minority Health
State Laws on Health Disparities || State Profiles: Offices of Minority Health || NCSL Resources-Health Disparities || Health Access Page|| National Partnership for Action Home Page
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