ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the data on mutually exclusive racial/ethnic categories. Stratifying by income is intended to limit the confounding effects of social class on the comparison of racial differences and also to gain some insight into the impact of income differences on the health indices of racial/ethnic minority women. Social conditions also affect other determinants of health such as physiological factors, lifestyle behaviors, and access to and use of health services. The finding provides some evidence that minority women use health services less frequently than non-minority women of comparable income. Although persistent racial disparities in health are often attributed to the lifestyle behaviors of racial minority populations, they are also a consequence of poorer social conditions as well as barriers in access to quality health services. Social environmental conditions are recognized as one of several determinants of a population’s health. The term “social condition” is used to refer to socio-demographic factors and to physical surroundings.
