Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-8mjnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T15:53:48.969Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Debating the Cause of Health Disparities

Implications for Bioethics and Racial Equality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2012

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Special Section: Bioethics and Health Disparities
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Smedley, BD, Stith, AY, Nelson, AR, eds. Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 2003 , at 5.Google Scholar

2. Epstein, RA.Disparities and discrimination in health care coverage: A critique of the Institute of Medicine study. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 2005;48:S26S41, at S40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

3. Klick, J, Satel, S.The Health Disparities Myth: Diagnosing the Treatment Gap. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute Press; 2006, at 3.Google Scholar

4. See note 3, Klick, Satel 2006, at 31–2.

5. Barr, DA.Health Disparities in the United States: Social Class, Race, Ethnicity, and Health. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press; 2008Google Scholar; Bach, PB, Pham, HH, Schrag, D, Tate, RC, Hargraves, JL.Primary care physicians who treat blacks and whites. New England Journal of Medicine 2004;351:575584;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMedSack, K.Research finds wide disparities in health care by race and region. New York Times 2008 Jun 5:A18.Google Scholar

6. Whitehead M, Dahlgren G. Concepts and Principles for Tackling Social Inequities in Health: Levelling Up Part 1. Copenhagen: World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe; 2006, at 2.

7. See note 5, Barr 2008; Kitagawa, EM, Hauser, PM.Differential Mortality in the United States: A Study in Socioeconomic Epidemiology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1973CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Adler, NE, Rehkopf, DH.U.S. disparities in health: Descriptions, causes, and mechanisms. Annual Review of Public Health 2008;29:235252;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMedMarmot, MG, Kogevinas, M, Elston, MA.Social/economic status and disease. Annual Review of Public Health 1987;8:111135.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

8. Marmot, MG, Shipley, MJ, Hamilton, PJ.Employment grade and coronary heart disease in British civil servants. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 1978;32:244249CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Marmot, MG, Shipley, MJ, Rose, G.Inequalities in death: Specific explanations of a general pattern? Lancet 1984;323:10031006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9. Gravlee, CC.How race becomes biology: Embodiment of social inequality. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 2009;139:4757, at 52CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Drexler, M.How racism hurts—literally. Boston Globe 2007 Jul 15:E1.Google Scholar

10. See note 5, Barr 2008:157; Krieger, N. The science and epidemiology of racism and health: Racial/ethnic categories, biological expressions of racism, and the embodiment of inequality—and ecosocial perspective. In: Whitmarsh, I, Jones, DS, eds. What’s the Use of Race? Modern Governance and the Biology of Difference. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2010, at 225–255, at 235Google Scholar; Williams, DR, Collins, C.Racial residential segregation: A fundamental cause of racial disparities in health. Public Health Reports 2001;116:404416;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMedKuzawa, CW, Sweet, E.Epigenetics and the embodiment of race: Developmental origins of US racial disparities in cardiovascular health. American Journal of Human Biology 2008; 21:215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11. LaViest, T, Pollack, K, Thorpe, R Jr, Fesahazion, R, Gaskin, D.Place, not race: Disparities dissipate in southwest Baltimore when blacks and whites live under similar conditions. Health Affairs 2011;30:18801887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. Cooper, RS, Kaufman, JS.Race and hypertension. Hypertension 1998;32:813816;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMedCooper, RS, Kaufman, JS, Ward, R.Race and genomics. New England Journal of Medicine 2003;348:11661170CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Shanawani, H, Dame, L, Schwartz, DA, Cook-Deegan, R.Non-reporting and inconsistent reporting of race and ethnicity in articles that claim association among genotype, outcome and race or ethnicity. Journal of Medical Ethics 2006;32:724728.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

13. Kistka, ZA-F, Palomar, L, Lee, KA, Boslaugh, SE, Wangler, MF, Cole, FS, et al. . Racial disparity in the frequency of recurrence of preterm births. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology 2007;196:131. e1e6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14. Stamilio, DM, Gross, GA, Shanks, A, DeFranco, E, Chang, JJ.Discussion: “Racial Disparity in Preterm Birth” by Kistka, et al. . American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology 2007;196:e1e5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15. Bakalar, N.Study points to genetics in disparities in preterm births. New York Times 2007 Feb 27:F5.Google Scholar

16. Kaufman, JS, Cooper, RS.In search of the hypothesis. Public Health Reports 1995;110:662666.Google ScholarPubMed

17. See note 12, Cooper, Kaufman 1998, at 813.

18. Brewster, LM, Clark, JF, van Montfrans, GA.Is greater tissue activity of creatine kinase the genetic factor increasing hypertension risk in black people of sub-Saharan African descent? Journal of Hypertension 2000;18:15371544.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

19. Cooper, R, Wolf-Maier, K, Luke, A, Adeyemo, A, Banegas, JR, Forrester, T, et al. . An international comparative study of blood pressure in populations of European vs. African descent. BMC Medicine 2000;3:2; available at http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1741-7015-3-2.pdf (last accessed 15 Apr 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20. See note 12, Shanawani et al. 2006, at 724.

21. Kaufman, JS, Cooper, RS, McGee, DL.Socioeconomic status and health in blacks and whites: The problem of residual confounding and the resiliency of race. Epidemiology 1997;8:621628Google ScholarPubMed; Kaufman, JS.Epidemiologic analysis of racial/ethnic disparities: Some fundamental issues and a cautionary example. Social Science & Medicine 2008;66:16591669.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22. LaViest, TA.On the study of race, racism, and health: A shift from description to explanation. International Journal of Human Services 2000;30:217219, at 218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23. See note 9, Gravlee 2009, at 47.

24. Duster, T.Buried alive: The concept of race in science. Chronicle of Higher Education 2001;48:B11Google Scholar; see also Ossorio, P, Duster, T.Controversies in biomedical, behavioral, and forensic sciences. American Psychologist 2005;60:115128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

25. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Press Release: FDA Approves BiDil Heart Failure Drug for Black Patients; 2005 June 23Google Scholar; available at http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/2005/ucm108445.htm. See also Saul, S.U.S. to review drug intended for one race. New York Times 2005 June 13:A1(last accessed 15 Apr 2012).Google ScholarPubMed

26. Taylor, AL, Ziesche, S, Yancy, C, Carson, P, D’Agostino, R, Ferdinand, K, et al. . Combination of isosorbide dinitrate and hydralazine in blacks with heart failure. New England Journal of Medicine 2004;351:20492057, at 2049.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

27. See note 26, Taylor et al. 2004, at 2049.

28. See note 26, Taylor et al. 2004, at 2049; BiDil. Common Questions: BiDil and the African American Heart Failure Trial (A-HeFT); available athttp://www.bidil.com/pnt/questions.php#1 (last accessed 15 Apr 2012).Google Scholar

29. Temple, R, Stockbridge, NL.BiDil for heart failure in black patients: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration perspective. Annals of Internal Medicine 2007;146:5762.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

30. Kahn, J.How a drug becomes ethnic: Law, commerce, and the production of racial categories in medicine. Yale Journal of Health Law, Policy & Ethics 2004;4:146;Google ScholarSankar, P, Kahn, J.BiDil: Race medicine or race marketing? Health Affairs 2005;24:455463CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kahn J. Race in a bottle. Scientific American 2007;297:40–45.

31. Roberts, DE.Is race-based medicine good for us? African-American approaches to race, biotechnology, and equality. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2008;36:537545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32. Washington, H.Medical Apartheid. New York: Random House; 2006.Google Scholar

33. See note 31, Roberts 2008, at 537.

34. Puckrein, G.BiDil: From another vantage point. Health Affairs 2006;25:w368w374, at w372CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

35. Ferdinand, KC.Fixed-dose isosorbide dinitrate-hydralazine: Race-based cardiovascular medicine benefit or mirage? Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2008;36:458463, at 458.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

36. See note 35, Ferdinand 2008, at 458.

37. See note 35, Ferdinand 2008, at 459.

38. Wilkinson, R, Pickett, K.The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. New York: Bloomsbury Press; 2009Google Scholar; Kawachi, I, Kennedy, BP.The Health of Nations: Why Inequality Is Harmful to Your Health. New York: New Press; 2002.Google Scholar

39. See note 38, Wilkinson, Pickett 2009, at 19–20.

40. See note 38, Wilkinson, Pickett 2009, at 20.

41. See note 38, Wilkinson, Pickett 2009.

42. de Vries, J, Bull, SJ, Doumbo, O, Ibrahim, M, Mercereau-Puijalon, O, Kwiatkowski, D, et al. . Ethical issues in human genomics research in developing countries. BMC Medical Ethics 2011;12:5; available at http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-6939-12-5.pdf (last accessed 15 Apr 2012).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

43. Washington, HA.Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself—And the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future. New York: Doubleday; 2011.Google Scholar

44. Hammonds, EM.Straw men and their followers: The return of biological race. Is Race Real?; 2006 June 7Google Scholar; available at http://raceandgenomics.ssrc.org/Hammonds (last accessed 15 Apr 2012).

45. Pear, R.Gap in life expectancy widens for the nation. New York Times 2008 Mar 23:A19.Google Scholar

46. Bonilla-Silva, E.Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield; 2003Google Scholar; Brown, MK, Carnoy, M, Currie, E, Duster, T, Oppenheimer, DB, Shultz, M, et al. . White-Washing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society. Berkeley: University of California Press; 2003Google Scholar. See also, for example, Thernstrom, S, Thernstrom, A.America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible. New York: Simon & Schuster; 1999.Google Scholar