Strategies for improving health disparities among disadvantaged populations

Background:In January 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its first report, highlighting health disparities by sex, race and ethnicity, income, education, disability status and geographic location as a supplement to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). The report addresses disparities in health care access, exposure to environmental hazards, mortality, morbidity, behavioral risk factors, preventive health services and social determinants of health. Since the report's release, CDC has received numerous inquiries asking how the report's 22 topic areas are being addressed. CDC's Office of Minority Health and Health Equity (OMHHE) is preparing to publish a summary of the most comprehensive, effective CDC programs in addressing health disparities as a program response. Methods: The OMHHE convened a CDC multidisciplinary workgroup of anthropologists, scientists, epidemiologists, and public health advisors to establish procedures and criteria for the program response. The programs selected addressed a specific disparity, provided a description of the intervention, described the outcome assessment and demonstrated the effectiveness of program findings. Results: Twenty-five programs with reductions in health disparities by race/ethnicity, were identified as meeting criteria established by the workgroup. These programs included strategies to prevent and control heart disease and stroke, HIV/AIDS, homicides, obesity, smoking and tobacco use, suicides, and unintentional injuries. Conclusions: These effective CDC programs will serve as guides for planning, prioritizing, implementing, and evaluating programs to improve the health status of minority communities. Summaries of these programs can serve as a catalyst for policy individual- and community-level improvements in health.