Five years of tracking national disparities in the U.S.: Findings from the 5th National Healthcare Disparities Report

Findings from the 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report show that:

- Improvements in healthcare disparities have been observed in key measures for end stage renal disease, access to care, preventable hospitalizations and childhood vaccinations for some racial and ethnic groups.

- However, significant disparities remain since the first year the NHDR has tracked healthcare disparities for each racial and ethnic group. Some examples include:

o Blacks had a rate of new AIDS cases 10 times higher than Whites.

o Asian adult ages 65 and over were 50% more likely than Whites to lack immunization against pneumonia.

o American Indians and Alaska Natives were twice as likely to lack prenatal care in the first trimester as Whites.

o Hispanics had a rate of new AIDS cases more than 3.5 times higher than that of non-Hispanic Whites.

o Poor children were over 28% more likely than high income children to experience poor communication with their health care providers.

- The 2007 NHDR shows that the uninsured face greater challenges than the insured in getting access to high quality health care. The uninsured were less likely than people with insurance to get preventive care. Some examples of key measures in these areas include:

o Cancer screening

„X Breast cancer screening: uninsured women were almost half as likely as women with insurance to have a mammogram in the past 2 years (38.3% compare with 74.2%).

o Obesity/Heart disease prevention

„X Counseling by a health provider about healthy eating for children: Uninsured children were significantly less likely than children with insurance to receive advice about healthy eating in 2004 (38.7% compared with 55.4%).

o Dental visits: the uninsured were less than half as likely as people with insurance to have had a dental visit in the past year in 2004 (18.4% compared with 51.3%).

Conclusions: Healthcare disparities remain pervasive in the U.S. While there have been improvements in some key measures, large disparities remain. Disparities affect different groups in different areas of health care. Limited access to care remains as a significant barrier to getting quality healthcare and is an important factor contributing to healthcare disparities. Opportunities still exist for more substantial improvements in healthcare disparities overall in the U.S.