April is National Minority Health Month

Typically most people think of minorities in regards to race or ethnicity.  However, minorities can also include sexual identity, age, geographic location, disability, gender and socioeconomics.  For many, being part of one or more of these categories often contributes to health disparities. According to Healthy People 2020, “To better understand the context of disparities, it is important to understand more about the U.S. population. ” In 2008, the U.S. population was estimated at 304 million. In 2008, approximately 33 percent, or more than 100 million persons, identified themselves as belonging to a racial or ethnic minority population. In 2008, 51 percent, or 154 million, were women. In 2008, approximately 12 percent, or 36 million people not living in nursing homes or other residential care facilities, had a disability. In 2008, an estimated 70.5 million persons lived in rural areas (23 percent of the population), while roughly 233.5 million lived in urban areas (77 percent). In 2002, an estimated 4 percent of the U.S. population aged 18 to 44 years identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Progress has been made to close the gap in health disparities but the work needs to continue to narrow the gap so that everyone has equal opportunities for better health whether it is accessing and understanding health insurance, health literacy, having preventative care available, or open communication between patients and clinicians. The National ...
Source: Dragonfly - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Health Literacy/Consumer Health Public Health Source Type: news