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Achieving Respiratory Health Equality

Author: Juan Carlos Celedón

Publisher: Humana Press

Published: 2016-10-26

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 3319434470

Including comprehensive coverage of health disparities commonly encountered in pediatric and adult pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine, Achieving Respiratory Health Equality in the United States provides a definitive reference on this prominent issue. Expert authors explore questions such as: * What is the evidence that respiratory health disparities exist? * What do we know about the causes of the disparities? * What are the clinical implications? * What can be done to address the particular disparities and thus achieve health equality? Recognizing the magnitude of this problem, the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Executive Committee created a Health Equality Sub-Committee, with an initial mandate of defining respiratory health disparities and respiratory health equality in the United States. This book will follow the format of a workshop on respiratory health equality held before the 2015 ATS International Meeting and led by editor Juan Carlos Celedón. Written by the workshop presenters, this book focuses closely on major risk factors for health, specific respiratory diseases for which health disparities are known to occur, and potential approaches to eliminate such disparities. Achieving Respiratory Health Equality in the United States is a timely resource for researchers, clinicians, and public health practitioners in respiratory medicine.

Communities in Action

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2017-04-27

Total Pages: 583

ISBN-13: 0309452961

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In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

The Unequal Burden of Cancer

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1999-06-11

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0309071542

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We know more about cancer prevention, detection, and treatment than ever beforeâ€"yet not all segments of the U.S. population have benefited to the fullest extent possible from these advances. Some ethnic minorities experience more cancer than the majority population, and poor peopleâ€"no matter what their ethnicityâ€"often lack access to adequate cancer care. This book provides an authoritative view of cancer as it is experienced by ethnic minorities and the medically underserved. It offers conclusions and recommendations in these areas: Defining and understanding special populations, and improving the collection of cancer-related data. Setting appropriate priorities for and increasing the effectiveness of specific National Institutes of Health (NIH) research programs, to ensure that special populations are represented in clinical trials. Disseminating research results to health professionals serving these populations, with sensitivity to the issues of cancer survivorship. The book provides background data on the nation's struggle against cancer, activities and expenditures of the NIH, and other relevant topics.

How Far Have We Come in Reducing Health Disparities?

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2012-09-12

Total Pages: 118

ISBN-13: 0309255333

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At the turn of the 21st century, several important reports and events designed to raise awareness of health disparities and to describe initial efforts to reduce health disparities took place. The Surgeon General's office released several reports that showed dramatic disparities in tobacco use and access to mental health services by race and ethnicity. The first real legislation focused on reducing health disparities was signed into law, creating the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities within the NIH. In 2001, the IOM released its landmark report, Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century, highlighting the importance of a focus on health care quality rather than a focus on only access and cost issues. Building upon these reports and events, the IOM held a workshop on April 8, 2010, that discussed progress to address health disparities and focused on the success of various federal initiatives to reduce health disparities. How Far Have We Come in Reducing Health Disparities? summarizes the workshop and explains the progress in the field since 2000.

Unequal Treatment

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2009-02-06

Total Pages: 781

ISBN-13: 030908265X

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Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are known to reflect access to care and other issues that arise from differing socioeconomic conditions. There is, however, increasing evidence that even after such differences are accounted for, race and ethnicity remain significant predictors of the quality of health care received. In Unequal Treatment, a panel of experts documents this evidence and explores how persons of color experience the health care environment. The book examines how disparities in treatment may arise in health care systems and looks at aspects of the clinical encounter that may contribute to such disparities. Patients' and providers' attitudes, expectations, and behavior are analyzed. How to intervene? Unequal Treatment offers recommendations for improvements in medical care financing, allocation of care, availability of language translation, community-based care, and other arenas. The committee highlights the potential of cross-cultural education to improve provider-patient communication and offers a detailed look at how to integrate cross-cultural learning within the health professions. The book concludes with recommendations for data collection and research initiatives. Unequal Treatment will be vitally important to health care policymakers, administrators, providers, educators, and students as well as advocates for people of color.

A Nationwide Framework for Surveillance of Cardiovascular and Chronic Lung Diseases

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2011-08-26

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 0309212197

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Chronic diseases are common and costly, yet they are also among the most preventable health problems. Comprehensive and accurate disease surveillance systems are needed to implement successful efforts which will reduce the burden of chronic diseases on the U.S. population. A number of sources of surveillance data--including population surveys, cohort studies, disease registries, administrative health data, and vital statistics--contribute critical information about chronic disease. But no central surveillance system provides the information needed to analyze how chronic disease impacts the U.S. population, to identify public health priorities, or to track the progress of preventive efforts. A Nationwide Framework for Surveillance of Cardiovascular and Chronic Lung Diseases outlines a conceptual framework for building a national chronic disease surveillance system focused primarily on cardiovascular and chronic lung diseases. This system should be capable of providing data on disparities in incidence and prevalence of the diseases by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic region, along with data on disease risk factors, clinical care delivery, and functional health outcomes. This coordinated surveillance system is needed to integrate and expand existing information across the multiple levels of decision making in order to generate actionable, timely knowledge for a range of stakeholders at the local, state or regional, and national levels. The recommendations presented in A Nationwide Framework for Surveillance of Cardiovascular and Chronic Lung Diseases focus on data collection, resource allocation, monitoring activities, and implementation. The report also recommends that systems evolve along with new knowledge about emerging risk factors, advancing technologies, and new understanding of the basis for disease. This report will inform decision-making among federal health agencies, especially the Department of Health and Human Services; public health and clinical practitioners; non-governmental organizations; and policy makers, among others.

Examining the Health Disparities Research Plan of the National Institutes of Health

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2006-07-29

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0309101212

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In the United States, health among racial and ethnic minorities, as well as poor people, is significantly worse than the overall U.S. population. Health disparities are reflected by indices such as excess mortality and morbidity and shorter life expectancy. Examining the Health Disparities Research Plan of the National Institutes of Health is an assessment of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Strategic Research Plan and Budget to Reduce and Ultimately Eliminate Health Disparities. It focuses on practical solutions to remedy the state of the current health disparity crisis. The NIH has played the leading role in conducting extensive research on minority health and health disparities for more than two decades. Although additional research is critical to facilitating a better understanding of the overarching social, economic, educational, and environmental factors that predispose groups to specific diseases and conditions, there is also a great need to translate the existing and new information into best care practices. This means increasing communication with affected populations and their communities. Examining the Health Disparities Research Plan of the National Institutes of Health presents solutions to improving the health disparities nationwide and evaluates the NIH strategy plan designed to actively correct and combat the ongoing health disparities dilemma.

Handbook on Health Inequality Monitoring

Author: World Health Organization

Publisher: World Health Organization

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 123

ISBN-13: 9241548630

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"The Handbook on health inequality monitoring: with a special focus on low- and middle-income countries is a resource that enables countries to do just that. It presents a comprehensive yet clear overview of health inequality monitoring in a user-friendly manner. The handbook succeeds in giving those involved in health inequality monitoring an appreciation of the complexities of the process, as well as building the practical knowledge and skills for systematic monitoring of health inequalities in low- and middle-income countries. The use of the handbook will enable countries to better monitor and evaluate their progress and performance with a high degree of accountability and transparency, and allow them to use the results to formulate evidenced-based policies, programmes and practices to tackle inequalities in an effective manner."--Publisher's description.

Health Disparities in Respiratory Medicine

Author: Lynn B. Gerald

Publisher: Humana Press

Published: 2015-12-14

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 331923675X

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This book discusses health disparities in respiratory medicine and suggests methods to reduce them. In the United States, health disparities are well documented in the care of patients with respiratory disorders, particularly among minorities who often have higher rates of disease and poorer health outcomes. Similarly, differences in health and health outcomes exist between differing socioeconomic groups, with lower income groups generally having poorer health and higher rates of chronic illness. Health Disparities in Respiratory Medicine investigates these differing outcomes through the complex connections between access and quality of treatment available to these groups. Chapters are organized around either causes, diseases, or types of care, including tobacco smoke exposure, environmental air quality, acute respiratory distress syndrome, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and end-of-life care. This volume is an ideal resource for pulmonologists, health care administrators, and policy makers who aim to understand disparities in respiratory medicine and take steps to improve the differences among groups.

The Health Gap

Author: Michael Marmot

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-09-10

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 1408857987

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'Punchily written ... He leaves the reader with a sense of the gross injustice of a world where health outcomes are so unevenly distributed' Times Literary Supplement 'Splendid and necessary' Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm, New Statesman There are dramatic differences in health between countries and within countries. But this is not a simple matter of rich and poor. A poor man in Glasgow is rich compared to the average Indian, but the Glaswegian's life expectancy is 8 years shorter. The Indian is dying of infectious disease linked to his poverty; the Glaswegian of violent death, suicide, heart disease linked to a rich country's version of disadvantage. In all countries, people at relative social disadvantage suffer health disadvantage, dramatically so. Within countries, the higher the social status of individuals the better is their health. These health inequalities defy usual explanations. Conventional approaches to improving health have emphasised access to technical solutions – improved medical care, sanitation, and control of disease vectors; or behaviours – smoking, drinking – obesity, linked to diabetes, heart disease and cancer. These approaches only go so far. Creating the conditions for people to lead flourishing lives, and thus empowering individuals and communities, is key to reduction of health inequalities. In addition to the scale of material success, your position in the social hierarchy also directly affects your health, the higher you are on the social scale, the longer you will live and the better your health will be. As people change rank, so their health risk changes. What makes these health inequalities unjust is that evidence from round the world shows we know what to do to make them smaller. This new evidence is compelling. It has the potential to change radically the way we think about health, and indeed society.