Literature-Based Appraisal of Racial/Ethnic Cardiovascular Health Care Disparities

Abstract

While racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular disease care have been recognized for some time, this growing literature has not integrated heterogeneities within populations and sufficient research on certain populations. This paper consists of a literature review of disparities for cardiovascular disease care in the United States using the Academic SearchComplete, a function of EBSCOhost. The purpose of the review is to evaluate the current state of the literature and determine the implications for eliminating these disparities. The search revealed an extensive literature on cardiovascular health disparities, although, the identified articles neglected certain population groups and certain sub-populations within well-researched groups. The causal pathways documented in the literature suggest that improvements are feasible in the near future, but the elimination of them would require concerted effort over a longer period.