Racial and Ethnic Inequalities in Health

Catalog description

Health disparities and health inequities remain a major social and public health problem in the US. Despite enormous health care expenditures and the remarkable medical, technological, and public health strides made in the past few decades, the challenge and burden of differences in health among specific population groups, that are either 4+1 Dual Degree Program Degree Offered: Master of Public Health avoidable or unjust, persist. Thus, a better understanding of health disparities and inequities among racial and ethnic groups is needed. This course will provide students with an in-depth introduction to health disparities and health inequities as they pertain to specific populations in the US that have been historically disadvantaged and systematically deprived of opportunities to achieve optimal health. The course material will also include an overview of the social determinants of population health. We will: i) consider historical and contemporary debates in conceptualizing race and ethnicity (ii) examine the burden of racial and ethnic disparities in the U.S. (iii) identify and examine some of the social determinants of health and drivers of health inequity and (iv) examine theoretical and practical challenges of developing innovative strategies to eliminate health disparities and achieve health equity. The ultimate goal of the course is to help students develop the skills needed to examine individual and systemic root causes of inequities and apply knowledge and theory of health disparities and health inequities in designing health services and program and policy interventions aimed at achieving health equity.