Research Guides: U.S. Health Research and Information: Disparities in HealthCARE

What are disparities in healthcare?

Health disparities are differences among perceived population groups in the incidence, prevalence, and outcomes of health conditions, diseases, and related complications of diseases.

Healthcare disparities are differences among population groups in the availability, accessibility, and quality of healthcare services aimed at preventing, treating, and managing diseases and their complications, including screening, diagnostic, treatment, management, and rehabilitation services.

Resources on Healthcare Disparities

Reducing disparities in health care "Recent studies have shown that despite the improvements in the overall health of the country, racial and ethnic minorities experience a lower quality of health care—they are less likely to receive routine medical care and face higher rates of morbidity and mortality than nonminorities."
An Antiracist Agenda for Medicine "Colorblind solutions have failed to achieve racial equity in health care. We need both federal reparations and real institutional accountability."
KFF Survey on Racism, Discrimination and Health: Views on Racism and Trust in Key U.S. Institutions "In health care, specifically, there is a long history of policies and events that contributed to present-day disparities, and race continues to permeate clinical decision-making and treatment in multiple ways."
National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports "The National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report presents trends for measures related to access to care, affordable care, care coordination, effective treatment, healthy living, patient safety, and person-centered care."
AHRQ Pharmacy Health Literacy Center "This site provides pharmacists with recently released health literacy tools and other resources from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)."

Last Updated: Mar 31, 2025 11:27 AM

Subjects: Health Sciences

Tags: health care, health disparities, health equity, health policy, health reform, public health