Online-only: Important health disparities topic of new CDC report
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* Teddi Dineley Johnson

Despite substantial gains in recent years in improving Americans’ health, persistent disparities continue to influence a person’s likelihood to be healthy, sick or to die prematurely, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Released as a supplement to CDC’s *Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report*, the report addresses access to care, exposure to environmental hazards, mortality, morbidity, behavioral risk factors, disability status and social determinants — the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work — that affect health. The report also underscores the need for more consistent, nationally representative data on disability status and sexual orientation.

“Better information about the health status of different groups is essential to improve health,” CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, said in a statement accompanying the report’s release Jan. 14. “This first-of-its kind analysis and reporting of recent trends is designed to spur action and accountability at the federal, tribal, state and local levels to achieve health equity in this country.”

Among the report’s key findings:

*   White men are two to three times more likely to die in motor vehicle crashes than white women.

*   Men of all ages, races and ethnicities are approximately four times more likely to die by suicide than females.

*   Rates of drug-induced deaths are highest among whites and lowest among Asian and Pacific Islanders.

*   Hypertension is by far most prevalent among blacks.

*   Rates of preventable hospitalizations increase as incomes decrease. Data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality indicate that eliminating such disparities would prevent approximately 1 million hospitalizations and save $6.7 billion in health care costs each year.

The report also shows that rates of teen pregnancy and childbirth have been falling or holding steady for all racial and ethnic minorities in all age groups. Yet disparities persisted in 2008 as birth rates for Hispanic teens were three times those of whites, and birth rates for black teens 2.5 times those of whites.

Disparities also exist in the area of binge drinking. For example, in 2009 the prevalence of binge drinking was higher among whites and in groups with higher incomes and higher levels of education. Among the possible reasons cited by the report for the disparity is that unlike smoking, binge drinking has not been recognized widely as a health risk or subjected to intense prevention efforts.

The National Association of County and City Health Officials commended CDC on the report’s release, noting that it emphasizes the ongoing work of local health departments to address the causes of inequities.

“This report highlights a fundamental role of the local, state and federal governmental public health system to gather and report data that describe the health stats of the nation,” APHA member Robert Pestronk, MPH, executive director of NACCHO, said in a statement.

The report is the first in a planned series examining disparities in selected social and health indicators.

To download “CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report — United States, 2011,” visit [www.cdc.gov/mmwr](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association