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Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Health Care: an Assessment and Analysis of the Awareness and Perceptions of Public Health Workers Implementing a Statewide Community Transformation Grant in Texas

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Abstract

Introduction

Little is known about the awareness of public health professionals regarding racial and ethnic disparities in health in the United States of America (USA). Our study objective was to assess the awareness and perceptions of a group of public health workers in Texas regarding racial health disparities and their chief contributing causes.

Methods

We surveyed public health professionals working on a statewide grant in Texas, who were participants at health disparities’ training workshops. Multivariable logistic regression was employed in examining the association between the participants’ characteristics and their perceptions of the social determinants of health as principal causes of health disparities.

Results

There were 106 respondents, of whom 38 and 35 % worked in health departments and non-profit organizations, respectively. The racial/ethnic groups with the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS and hypertension were correctly identified by 63 and 50 % of respondents, respectively, but only 17, and 32 % were knowledgeable regarding diabetes and cancer, respectively. Seventy-one percent of respondents perceived that health disparities are driven by the major axes of the social determinants of health. Exposure to information about racial/ethnic health disparities within the prior year was associated with a higher odds of perceiving that social determinants of health were causes of health disparities (OR 9.62; 95 % CI 2.77, 33.41).

Conclusion

Among public health workers, recent exposure to information regarding health disparities may be associated with their perceptions of health disparities. Further research is needed to investigate the impact of such exposure on their long-term perception of disparities, as well as the equity of services and programs they administer.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded as part of the Public Prevention Health Fund: Community Transformation Grant under grant number CDC-RFA-DP11-1103PPHF11 awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

ᅟ

Conflict of Interest

Oladimeji Akinboro, Allison Ottenbacher, Marcus Martin, Roderick Harrison, Thomas James, Eddilisa Martin, James Murdoch, Kim Linnear, and Kathryn Cardarelli declare that we have no conflict of interest—financial, professional, or otherwise—that may have influenced our study as well as the content of this manuscript.

Ethical Approval

Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, Texas.

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5).

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants for their inclusion in this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital, 16 Guion Place, New Rochelle, NY, 10801, USA

    Oladimeji Akinboro

  2. Behavioral Research Program, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, USA

    Allison Ottenbacher

  3. 2M Research Services, Cedar Hill, TX, USA

    Marcus Martin, Roderick Harrison, Thomas James, Eddilisa Martin & James Murdoch

  4. University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Thomas James

  5. University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA

    James Murdoch

  6. University of North Texas Health Sciences Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA

    Kim Linnear

  7. University of Kentucky College of Public Health, Lexington, KY, USA

    Kathryn Cardarelli

  8. Formerly at the Center for Community Health, Texas Prevention Institute, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA

    Oladimeji Akinboro, Allison Ottenbacher & Kathryn Cardarelli

Authors
  1. Oladimeji Akinboro
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  2. Allison Ottenbacher
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  4. Roderick Harrison
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  6. Eddilisa Martin
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  8. Kim Linnear
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Oladimeji Akinboro.

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Akinboro, O., Ottenbacher, A., Martin, M. et al. Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Health Care: an Assessment and Analysis of the Awareness and Perceptions of Public Health Workers Implementing a Statewide Community Transformation Grant in Texas. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 3, 46–54 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-015-0111-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-015-0111-1

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