Читать книгу The Science of Health Disparities Research - Группа авторов - Страница 16

NIMHD defines minority health research as the study of all aspects of health and disease in one or more OMB‐defined racial/ethnic minority populations. Minority health research can include comparative research to examine and understand better or worse health outcomes in a racial/ethnic minority group relative to other groups. For example, greater prostate cancer mortality in African American men compared to White men, longer life expectancy in Asian and Hispanic/Latino populations compared to the general population, and higher rates of diabetes in all minority groups. Minority health research also encompasses within‐group variation in health, such as asthma prevalence and morbidity in Puerto Ricans compared to Mexican Americans, and variation in cancer rates among American Indians from different regions. Minority health research can also address health conditions or risk and resilience factors specific to or disproportionately found in specific racial/ethnic minority groups, such as pain management in African American sickle cell patients and the use of native or traditional medicines or health practices by American Indians/Alaska Natives and other population groups.

An overarching common theme for all racial/ethnic minorities in the United States is to share a common experience of having been subject to some level of discrimination or social exclusion, which vary across groups and by socioeconomic status (SES) and need to be placed in historical and current contexts. The historical trauma experienced by American Indians as they were displaced from their lands and restricted to reservations, and the legacy of slavery for Black Americans carry a special burden. Moreover, societal discriminatory practices, like redlining to support residential segregation, have affected racial/ethnic minorities and are a fundamental cause that must be understood in order to reduce health disparities.