title: Awareness of racial and socioeconomic health disparities in the United States: the national opinion survey on health and health disparities, 2008-2009.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recent initiatives aim to improve public awareness of health disparities. However, little research has actually documented the US public's awareness of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic health disparities. We sought to determine 1) whether the US public is aware of racial, educational, and income disparities in health, 2) whether awareness differs across these disparity domains, and 3) what respondent characteristics are associated with awareness of racial, educational, and income disparities in health.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted the National Opinion Survey on Health and Health Disparities with 2,791 US adults. We asked respondents to answer questions about disparities in health between 1 of several pairs of population subgroups: African Americans versus whites, non-high school graduates versus high school graduates, high school graduates versus college graduates, the poor versus the middle class, or the middle class versus the rich. We used χ(2) tests and logistic regression to compare correlates of respondents' awareness of disparities across the different pairs of population subgroups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most respondents were aware of health disparities between the poor and middle class (73%); fewer were aware of health disparities between African Americans and whites (46%). Although respondents recognized that education is associated with many positive life outcomes, they were less aware of the link between education and health. Respondents who were younger, less educated, lower-income, healthier, or politically conservative were less likely to be aware of health disparities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Public awareness of disparities in health differs depending on both the type of disparity and the characteristics of the individual respondent.
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Population Health Sciences, 610 Walnut Street, Madison, WI 53726, USA. bbooske@wisc.edu
authors.forename: Bridget C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Booske
authors.forename: Stephanie A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Robert
authors.forename: Angela M K
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Rohan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D001364:Awareness; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult