Improving population health and reducing health care disparities

Health Affairs

Volumn 26, Issue 5, 2007, Pages 1281-1292

  Keppel, Kenneth ^a   Bilheimer, Linda ^b   Gurley, Leda ^b  

^a NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTH STATISTICS   (United States)

^b NCHS ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CHRONIC DISEASE; ETHNOLOGY; HEALTH CARE DELIVERY; HEALTH CARE POLICY; HEALTH CARE QUALITY; HEALTH PROMOTION; HEALTH STATUS; HUMAN; LIFE EXPECTANCY; MORTALITY; NONBIOLOGICAL MODEL; ORGANIZATION; ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT; PRIMARY HEALTH CARE; QUALITY OF LIFE; SUICIDE; UNITED STATES; VULNERABLE POPULATION;

CHRONIC DISEASE; HEALTH POLICY; HEALTH PROMOTION; HEALTH STATUS DISPARITIES; HEALTHCARE DISPARITIES; HUMANS; LIFE EXPECTANCY; MODELS, ORGANIZATIONAL; MORTALITY; ORGANIZATIONAL OBJECTIVES; PRIMARY HEALTH CARE; PROGRAM EVALUATION; QUALITY OF LIFE; SUICIDE; UNITED STATES; VULNERABLE POPULATIONS;

EID: 35148896753     PISSN: 02782715     EISSN: 02782715     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.26.5.1281     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Healthy People 2010, 2d ed., with Understanding and Improving Health and Objectives for Improving Health, 2 vols. (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, November 2000).
2. Ibid.
3. Institute of Medicine, The Future of Public Health (Washington: National Academies Press, 1988).
4. K. Keppel, J. Pearcy, and R. Klein, "Measuring Progress in Healthy People 2010,"Healthy People Statistical Notes no. 25 (Hyattsville, Md.: National Center for Health Statistics, September 2004).
5. K. Keppel et al., "Methodological Issues in Measuring Health Disparities," Vital and Health Statistics, Series 2, no. 141 (Hyattsville, Md.: NCHS, 2005).
6. t = year 2010 target value.
7. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy People 2010 Midcourse Review, December 2006, http://www.healthypeople.gov/data/ midcourse/default.htm#pubs (accessed 16 February 2007).
8. The disparity among several group rates or percentages can be measured using an index of disparity that summarizes the differences among the groups. Although the percentage difference measures disparity from the rate of the best group for individual groups, an index of disparity can be used to measure the disparity between several groups and the best group. An index of disparity provides a way to determine whether the disparity between several groups is getting larger or smaller relative to the rate of the best group. The formula for an index of disparity is a ratio defined as follows: The denominator is the number of groups minus 1 (because this statistic is based on the average of percentage differences from the rate of the best group), and the numerator is the sum of the percentage differences for each group rate of interest (so the summation index runs from1 to n-1,where n is the number of groups). See also Keppel et al., "Measuring Progress in Healthy People 2010";
9. and J. Pearcy and K. Keppel, "A Summary Measure of Health Disparity," Public Health Reports 117, no. 3 (2002): 273-280.
10. ODPHP, Healthy People 2010 Midcourse Review.
11. Ibid.
12. NCHS, "DATA2010," an interactive, online database containing baseline and tracking data for the Healthy People 2010 objectives, http://wonder.cdc.gov/DATA2010 (accessed 16 February 2007).
13. Ibid.
14. See Appendix Figure 1, online at http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/ content/full/26/5/1281/DC1.
15. See Appendix Figure 2, ibid.
16. See Appendix Figure 3, ibid.
17. See Appendix Figure 4, ibid.
18. T.J. Mathews and M.F. MacDorman, "Infant Mortality Statistics from the 2003 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set," National Vital Statistics Reports 54, no. 16 (2006): 1-29.