Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Sep;98(9 Suppl):S8-11.
doi: 10.2105/ajph.98.supplement_1.s8.

The public health approach to eliminating disparities in health

David Satcher  1 , Eve J Higginbotham
Affiliations

The public health approach to eliminating disparities in health

David Satcher et al. Am J Public Health. 2008 Sep.

Abstract

Reducing and eliminating disparities in health is a matter of life and death. Each year in the United States, thousands of individuals die unnecessarily from easily preventable diseases and conditions. It is critical that we approach this problem from a broad public health perspective, attacking all of the determinants of health: access to care, behavior, social and physical environments, and overriding policies of universal access to care, physical education in schools, and restricted exposure to toxic substances. We describe the historical background for recognizing and addressing disparities in health, various factors that contribute to disparities, how the public health approach addresses such challenges, and two successful programs that apply the public health approach to reducing disparities in health. Public health leaders must advocate for public health solutions to eliminate disparities in health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Republished from

References

    1. McGinnis JM, Foege WH. Actual causes of death in the United States. JAMA. 1993;270(18):2207–2212. - PubMed
    1. Satcher D, Fryer GE, McCann J, Troutman A, Woolf SH, Rust G. What if we were equal? A comparison of the Black-White mortality gap in 1960 and 2000. Health Aff. 2005;24(2): 459–464. - PubMed
    1. Healthy People 2010: Understanding and Improving Health. Washington, DC: US Dept of Health and Human Services; 2000. Available at: http://web.health.gov/healthypeople/document. Accessed March 31, 2007.
    1. Institute of Medicine. Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2003. - PubMed
    1. National Healthcare Disparities Report, 2003. Rockville, Md: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Available at: http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr03/nhdr03.htm. Accessed March 31, 2007

LinkOut - more resources