ABSTRACT
Th e popular media has celebrated dramatic improvements in Americans’ overall health during the last century. Healthcare research, however, shows that subsets of the population disproportionately experience poor health outcomes and problems accessing high-quality healthcare services. People of lower socioeconomic status, racial and ethnic minorities, or people that live in underserved geographic areas have poorer health outcomes than the national average. Studies also show diff erences in the quality of health care provided to women, children, the elderly, and people with chronic illness, which results in disparities in health outcomes (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2003). Th ese diff erences are labeled health disparities and are considered inequitablediff erences in health, health care, and health outcomesthat are potentially systematic and avoidable (Carter-Pokras & Baquet, 2002).
