Racial and Ethnic Disparities, Adulthood

Abstract

The existence of racial and ethnic health disparities is a major problem for the United States. Whether identified by the construct of “excess deaths” (HHS, US, 1985) or Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) (LaVeist, 2000), the differences in morbidity and mortality between US ethnic minority groups and European Americans has been a source of concern and embarrassment since the early 1900s (Thomas & Quinn, 2001). Statistics on racial and ethnic health disparities are inconsistent with notions of social justice and equality. Racial and ethnic health disparities are also problematic because they may suggest to some that groups of color are deficient or inferior with regard to health and mental health, when in fact, the cause of the disparities could very well be due to social, cultural, economic, and political factors, reflected in the pattern of discrimination minority groups experience (Williams & Neighbors, 2001).