What Shapes Health-Related Behaviors? The Role of Social Factors

Outlines how social factors such as education, income, and neighborhood conditions affect stress levels and access to healthy choices and medical care, in turn shaping health-related behaviors. Lists promising programs for creating healthier environments

Early Childhood Experiences: Laying the Foundation for Health Across a Lifetime

Outlines current research on how factors such as parents' education, income, and race/ethnicity affect children's development and health throughout life, as well as how early childhood development programs can mitigate socioeconomic disadvantages

Race and Socioeconomic Factors Affect Opportunities for Better Health

Examines racial/ethnic disparities in mortality and diabetes rates and the links between income and health within and across groups. Explores how race/ethnicity affects income at a given education level or socioeconomic conditions at a given income level

Overcoming Obstacles to Health

Social differences in health can be reduced, but only if solutions can be identified to address their root causes. The greatest potential lies in solutions that will help people choose health. That means both strengthening individuals’ ability to make healthy choices and removing obstacles to choosing health. It also means creating more opportunities to be healthy. The human impact of health is clear: Health is essential to well-being and full participation in society, and ill health can mean suffering, disability and loss of life. The economic impacts of health have become increasingly apparent. If current trends continue, medical care costs, now about 16 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP),1 will reach 20 percent of GDP by 2015.2 The costs of medical care and insurance are now out of reach for many households, pushing some into bankruptcy. These costs are draining employers’ resources, threatening the bottom line of many American businesses. Federal, state and local health care spending is straining government budgets. Our society’s aging and the obesity epidemic will further increase costs of care

Where We Live Matters for Our Health: Neighborhoods and Health

Details how a neighborhood's physical and socioeconomic environments, such as safety and access to fresh produce, exercise opportunities, and medical services, affect residents' health. Highlights local interventions to make neighborhoods healthier

Where We Live Matters for Our Health: The Links Between Housing and Health

Explains how physical conditions within homes, conditions in the neighborhoods, and housing affordability affect physical and mental health. Looks at past initiatives and offers strategies for improving health through public and private housing policies

Pandemic Influenza Planning in the United States from a Health Disparities Perspective

Preparedness plans must account for the fact that illness and death rates may differ for members of some socioeconomic and racial/ethnic groups during a pandemic

An Approach to Studying Social Disparities in Health and Health Care

Objective. We explored methods and potential applications of a systematic approach to studying and monitoring social disparities in health and health care. Methods. Using delayed or no prenatal care as an example indicator, we (1) categorized women into groups with different levels of underlying social advantage; (2) described and graphically displayed rates of the indicator and relative group size for each social group; (3) identified and measured disparities, calculating relative risks and rate differences to compare each group with its a priori most-advantaged counterpart; (4) examined changes in rates and disparities over time; and (5) conducted multivariate analyses for the overall sample and “at-risk” groups to identify particular factors warranting attention. Results. We identified at-risk groups and relevant factors and suggest ways to direct efforts for reducing prenatal care disparities. Conclusions. This systematic approach should be useful for studying and monitoring disparities in other indicators of health and health care