Putting men's health care disparities on the map: examining racial and ethnic disparities at the state level
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Author(s):
- James, Cara, author Salganicoff, Alina, author Ranji, Usha, author Goodwin, Andrew, author Duckett, Philethea, author
- Contributor(s):
- Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, September 2012
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Racial Groups Ethnicity -- statistics & numerical data Health Services Accessibility -- statistics & numerical data Health Status Disparities Health Status Indicators Healthcare Disparities -- statistics & numerical data United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- The distinct manner in which women and men experience health problems and use health care services can shape their health outcomes. These gender-based differences are further affected by the varied experiences of racial and ethnic minorities living in different states across the U.S. Today, one-third of U.S. residents self-identify as a member of a racial or ethnic minority group and over half of all births are among minorities. Increasingly, minority populations are becoming the majority in many states across the nation. Because national statistics can mask the impact of the demographic shifts that are already well underway in many states this report was developed to provide data on the different aspects of the health experiences of men living in different states in the U.S. In 2009, the Kaiser Family Foundation produced an analysis of the state-level health disparities for women across the nation, Putting Women's Health Care Disparities on the Map. This new analysis on men provides the same level of information that was presented for women--state-level data which has not previously been available. The central aim of this report is not only to show how the health of men of particular racial and ethnic groups differs across the nation, but also how the broad range of men's experiences vary by state. Like its companion report on women, this report documents considerable health-related disparities among men, and also highlights the wide variation among men in different states. Despite a large body of research that has documented the unique impact of gender on health, much of what is currently known about racial and ethnic disparities is drawn from national data sources that are typically presented in the aggregate, combining information for both sexes. State-level and national information is commonly presented by gender or by race and ethnicity, but rarely both. This can occur because the size of minority populations in some states is not large enough on which to base reliable state-level estimates. Aggregate data can obscure many of the state-level differences in economics, policies, and demographics that affect health and health care for men and women. Men often face health challenges that are different from those of women such as violence and binge drinking, experience health problems or health conditions at different rates, and often underuse preventive services compared to women. This report provides new information about how men fare at the state level by assessing aspects of health status and access to care experienced by men ages 18 to 64 in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. For each state, the magnitude of the racial and ethnic differences between white men and men of color was analyzed for 22 indicators of health and well-being grouped in three dimensions--health status, access and utilization, and social determinants. These indicators were selected based on criteria that included both the relevancy of the indicator as a measure of men's health and access to care, and the availability of the data by state. The data in this report are drawn from several sources. The primary data sources for the indicators were the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS), combining years 2006-2008 for both data sources, which represented the most recent data at the time the project began, and the base years for most of the sources of data. The report presents rates for subpopulations of men for all the indicators and also includes a disparity score for each indicator, a measure that captures the extent of the disparity between white men and men of color in the state and the U.S. overall. A disparity score of 1.00 signifies that the rates were similar for white and minority men, although it does not indicate whether both groups were doing well or poorly relative to other men in the nation. A disparity score of greater than 1.00 indicates that minority men were doing more poorly than white men on that indicator, and a score that is lower than 1.00 indicates that white men were doing more poorly than men of color men. For each indicator a 2 x 2 graphic is presented that shows how the states clustered by disparity score and how white men in the state fared. This graphic allows the reader to understand how the disparities were distributed across the states and to recognize that fewer disparities can be attributed to either good health and access among both white and minority men or poor performance among both groups.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (5 unnumbered pages, 69 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101594071 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101594071