Tackling Health Disparities in Louisiana

“If you bring a public health program to people where they live, you can get amazing results,” says Peter Katzmarzyk, Ph.D., a professor of pediatric obesity and diabetes at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University. Specifically, bringing health programs into underserved communities can lead to strong engagement and positive changes in people’s health. Dr. Katzmarzyk is part of the NIGMS-funded Louisiana Clinical & Translational Science Center (LA CaTS), a collaboration between 10 academic, research, and health care delivery institutions that focuses on reducing health disparities in Louisiana. Defining Health Disparities Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk. Credit: Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Health disparities are health differences, on the basis of one or more health outcomes, that adversely affect disadvantaged populations. A health disparity population is one with a pattern of poorer health outcomes, seen in how many overall cases of disease exist, how common the disease is, how it affects quality of life, and how often it leads to death, compared with the general population. These populations, as designated by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), include: Black/African Americans Hispanics/Latinos Asians American Indians/Alaska Natives Native Hawaiians/other Pacific Islanders People who are socioeconomically disadvantaged (determined by income, education, occupation, and ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Being a Scientist Injury and Illness Source Type: blogs