Thomas McGuire, PhD, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, 180 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115-5899, (617) 432-3536, mcguire@hcp.med.harvard.edu, Margarita Alegria, PhD, Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research, Cambridge Health Alliance, 120 Beacon Street, 4th Floor, Somerville, MA 02143, and David Takeuchi, PhD, University of Washington, 4101 15th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105-6299.

Fairness in the distribution of health care resources is a major policy issue, with systematic differences in the rates of use of ethnic and racial minorities compared to whites being a particular area of concern. This paper implements a newly proposed definition of unfair differences, also known as health care disparities, in recent national data assessing the health care needs and services use among four major population groups in the U.S.: African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos and Whites. The definition has been proposed by the Institute of Medicine to be differences in health care use not due to differences in preferences or need. Data are from the National Comorbidity Study II and the National Latino and Asian American Study, national community samples from 2001/2 with large numbers of all groups. Empirical methods distinguish between preference and need variables which should be adjusted for in accounting for differences, and mediating variables such as income and insurance status, through which race and ethnicity may lead to unfair differences. Focus will be on unfair differences overall and for some specific illnesses, including depression.

Learning Objectives:

• To identify unfair differences in mental health services use for racial and ethnic minorities through the assessment of health care disparities.

Keywords: Minorities, Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.