Implementing community-based research and prevention programs to decrease health disparities.

Abstract

There has long been a concern regarding health inequities among people of color in the United States, particularly African Americans (Heckler, 1985). Epidemiological studies continue to demonstrate that African Americans across the lifespan suffer much higher disease and death rates than do other ethnic groups in this country (Kawachi, Daniels, & Robinson, 2005). In fact, scholars and researchers dating as far back as W. E. B. Du Bois ( 2003) have commented on the poorer health status of African Americans compared with their White counterparts, providing a literal translation for the old adage, "When America catches a cold, African Americans catch pneumonia." A comprehensive analysis of health disparities in America requires a full examination of the social structure in which these disparities emerge, although the adverse influence of racism is frequently cited as a primary contributor to health inequities in the United States (Williams & Williams-Morris, 2000). Intersectionality theorists posit that the life experiences of people of color are shaped by the