Racial/ethnic disparities in health: the interplay between discrimination and socioeconomic status.
In the past decade, racial/ethnic discrepancy in health status has drawn increased attention from academicians, policy makers and planners, service providers, and community advocates. While the field has witnessed a growth in research projects and intervention programs, the gap in health status among racial/ethnic groups persists, which suggests that future research should incorporate a focus on one neglected area, ie, the health implications of discrimination. Using the National Survey of Functional Health (N=1,659), a nationally representative sample of English-speaking persons 18 years of age and older living in non-institutional arrangements within the United States, we analyzed how self-perceived unfairness (discrimination due to racial identity or to low socioeconomic status [SES]) was linked to self-assessed health status. The study found that racial and class discrimination were rather pervasive in the United States. Experiences of discrimination tended to have a strong negative association with health and accounted for some racial/ethnic differences in health status. The study also revealed a complex relationship between experiences of discrimination and social class, suggesting that future research should focus on specifying the social distribution of discrimination and assessing its subsequent association with health.
Ren
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XS
Center for Health Quality, Outcomes, and Economic Research, Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford, Massachusetts 01730, USA. xsren@bu.edu
Amick
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BC
Williams
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DR
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003863:Depression / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011287:Prejudice; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology