Awareness Of Racial And Ethnic Health Disparities Has Improved Only Modestly Over A Decade

Abstract

Documented disparities exist in the United States between the majority white population and various racial and ethnic minority populations on several health and health care indicators, including access to and quality of care, disease prevalence, infant mortality, and life expectancy. However, awareness of these disparities-a necessary first step toward changing behavior and compelling action-remains limited. Our survey of 3,159 adults age eighteen or older found that 59 percent of Americans in 2010 were aware of racial and ethnic disparities that disproportionately affect African Americans and Hispanics or Latinos. That number represents a modest increase over the 55 percent recorded in a 1999 survey. Meanwhile, in our survey, 89 percent of African American respondents were aware of African American and white disparities, versus 55 percent of whites. Yet the survey also revealed low levels of awareness among racial and ethnic minority groups about disparities that disproportionately affect their own communities. For example, only 54 percent of African Americans were aware of disparities in the rate of HIV/AIDS between African Americans and whites, and only 21 percent of Hispanics or Latinos were aware of those disparities between their group and whites. Policy makers must increase the availability and quality of data on racial and ethnic health disparities and create multisectoral partnerships to develop targeted educational campaigns to increase awareness of health disparities.

Understanding Public Resistance to Messages About Health Disparities

“…The public has limited awareness of health disparities; for example, fewer than half of Americans believe that African Americans are worse off than Whites in terms of life expectancy or infant mortality (Benz, Espinosa, Welsh, & Fontes, 2011;Brodie, Connolly, & Deane, 2010). Public opinion studies show that conservatives are less likely to recognize health disparities than liberals (Booske, Robert, & Rohan, 2011), that the public is more aware of differences in health by socioeconomic status than by race , and that the public judges behavioral factors as more important determinants than social and economic factors .…”

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Health Care: an Assessment and Analysis of the Awareness and Perceptions of Public Health Workers Implementing a Statewide Community Transformation Grant in Texas

“…Several surveys of the general public have demonstrated a modest awareness of racial/ethnic health disparities [15,16,18,19,21,23]. However, prior studies show a relatively poor awareness among health professionals such as physicians [14,[20][21][22].…”

“…Recommendations and national strategies for addressing health disparities have had, as one of their guiding principles, the promotion of awareness of health and health care disparities among health professionals and the general public [7,12,13]. Studies have been conducted to assess the awareness of racial/ethnic health disparities in the general public, and also among groups of practicing and trainee health professionals such as nurses, physicians, medical residents, and medical students [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. However, there is a dearth of data regarding the awareness of health disparities among health professionals such as public health personnel who often provide and manage Bupstreamĥ ealth services to the public, but may not be involved in the direct provision of health care.…”

Resident Physicians and Cancer Health Disparities: a Survey of Attitudes, Knowledge, and Practice

“…However, most workforce development initiatives to mitigate cancer health disparities focus primarily on oncologists [4,5], rather than on primary care providers (PCPs) who are better positioned to address preventive and community issues. Although the racial and ethnic health disparity awareness among physicians has somewhat improved in the last few years [6], there are still deficiencies in training and skill development related to this issue. In fact, previous survey data have shown the need to increase awareness of health disparities among physicians [7,8] supporting the Institute of Medicine's previous recommendation for health professionals to receive training to better understand and address disparities [9].…”