The September issue of the American Journal of Public Health includes an article on the NIH Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities, “the first federal initiative to support transdisciplinary multilevel research on the determinants of health disparities.”

Citation: Warnecke, R. B., Oh, A., Breen, N., Gehlert, S., Paskett, E., Tucker, K. L., et al. (2008). Approaching Health Disparities From a Population Perspective: The National Institutes of Health Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities. American Journal of Public Health, 98(9), 1608-1615. (Abstract available online; Penn State users check The CAT for print or online full text)

The PRI Library has received announcement of the C2S Summer Biomarkers Institute, to be held June 9-11 at the Evanston, IL campus of the Northwestern University.

The PRI Library has received announcement of the “What’s the Use of Race?” conference to be held at the MIT Faculty Club on April 25-26, 2008 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The PRI Library has received announcement of the 2008 Diabetes & Obesity Disparities in Healthcare Systems Conference to be held June 30 - July 1, 2008 in Bethesda MD.

The Growing Color Divide in US Infant Mortality, a new report from the Population Reference Bureau by Rogelia Saenz, professor of sociology at Texas A&M University, examines racial disparities in health beginning at birth.

Unnatural Causes, a 7-part documentary series about socioeconomic and racial disparities and health, will air on PBS in 2008 and will also be available on DVD. For more about the project and the documentary, see the Unnatural Causes Web site.

Researchers are looking at racism and discrimination as an explanation for black men’s health disparities which cannot be explained by socioeconomic status alone, according to an article in the Baltimore Sun. Vickie Mays at the UCLA Center on Research, Education, Training and Strategic Communication on Minority Health Disparities has conducted research about the body’s physiological response to stress, such as that resulting from discrimination, and health. Other researchers, like George Howard of the University of Alabama Birmingham’s biostatistics department, say that while racism plays a role in health disparities, socioeconomic status is the primary cause.

Citations:

Vickie M. Mays, Susan D. Cochran, and Namdi W. Barnes (2007). Race, race-based discrimination, and health outcomes among African Americans. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 201-225.

George Howard, Darwin R. Labarthe, Jianfang Hu, Sarah Yoon, and Virginia J. Howard (2007). Regional differences in African Americans’ high risk for stroke: The remarkable burden of stroke for southern African Americans. Annals of Epidemiology, 9, 689-696.

The National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering have issued a request for information on “Medical Technologies for Reducing Disparities in Healthcare Access and Health Outcomes.” The input will help guide future NCMHD/NIBIB programs. For details, see the RFI.

While US life expectancy has grown, it is behind Japan and most of Europe, ranking 42nd globally (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report). Reasons cited include lack of universal health coverage, racial and socioeconomic disparities, obesity, and a relatively high infant mortality rate.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI)’s Community Cancer Centers program will facilitate research and encourage collaboration among private-practice medical, surgical and radiation oncologists to improve cancer care for underserved patients, according to a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.