Intervening Early to Address Children’s Health Disparities
In the United States, children of color and those in low-income families continue to lag behind white and affluent children on nearly every health indicator. In addition, many of these indicators and conditions, such as preterm birth, low birth weight, and asthma, can have long-term influences on children’s healthy development and functioning.
What’s in a Name? Untangling Health Disparities, the Social Determinants of Health, and Health Equity
Health disparities…social determinants of health… health equity. These phrases are used to talk about differences in health, but what do they mean?
Tackling the Tough Work of Community Change
While somewhat new to health foundations, place-based community change work is not new to philanthropy. Grantmakers who are considering such ventures have to judge how comfortable they are with the roles they might be called upon to play in a community change effort.
Oral Health Disparities: A Shift Toward Policy Work
Oral diseases and disorders occur frequently among all populations, but large disparities exist by region, age, socioeconomic status, and race and ethnicity. In response, many oral health grantmakers have become more focused on policy solutions to improve oral health.
Health Reform: Time for a Paradigm Shift
There is no question that health reform is crucial. To attain true health reform, however, we need to focus on keeping Americans healthier in the first place and not just treating them after they become sick. If we want to improve the health of the communities we serve, of an entire state, or of the entire nation, we need to act upon the fact that our health is shaped far more by the places we live, learn, work, and play than by what happens in clinics and hospitals (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 2008).
HIV/AIDS and Women of Color: Changing the Conversation
For the past decade, HIV/AIDS-related conditions have been the leading cause of death for African-American women ages 25-34 in the United States (CDC 1999). Over the past two decades, our local foundation has seen this national epidemic take root in our local community in Washington, DC, where we now have 10 times the rate of HIV/AIDS per capita compared to the rest of the country.
Changing the Conversation: Taking a Social Determinants of Health Approach to Addressing HIV/AIDS among Women of Color
This piece was written in conjunction with an October 1, 2009 GIH strategy session to understand HIV/AIDS prevention among women of color through a social determinants lens and explore the possibilities this approach presents.
We Must Promote Health Equity in Spite of Current Economic Challenges
When the Whitehall Studies were first published, they identified not only a social gradient that correlated the relationship between social status and life expectancy, but new variables to consider when predicting population health outcomes. These variables included the economic, social, and physical environments in which people live.
It’s Not Just Black and White: Health Disparities in Other Racial and Ethnic Groups
Though discussions of race often center on the experiences of African Americans, other racial and ethnic groups, such as Hispanics, Asian Americans, and American Indians, have also experienced systematic racism and disparities in health status and health outcomes.
Seeing the Future with 20/20 Vision: Michael Marmot Plenary Address from the 2009 GIH Annual Meeting
Read the 2009 annual meeting plenary address “Building a Global Movement for Health Equity” by Michael, Marmot, Chair of the Commission on Social Determinants on Health, World Health Organization.
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