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Book Critical Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health in Late Life

Download or read book Critical Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health in Late Life written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2004-10-16 with total page 753 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In their later years, Americans of different racial and ethnic backgrounds are not in equally good-or equally poor-health. There is wide variation, but on average older Whites are healthier than older Blacks and tend to outlive them. But Whites tend to be in poorer health than Hispanics and Asian Americans. This volume documents the differentials and considers possible explanations. Selection processes play a role: selective migration, for instance, or selective survival to advanced ages. Health differentials originate early in life, possibly even before birth, and are affected by events and experiences throughout the life course. Differences in socioeconomic status, risk behavior, social relations, and health care all play a role. Separate chapters consider the contribution of such factors and the biopsychosocial mechanisms that link them to health. This volume provides the empirical evidence for the research agenda provided in the separate report of the Panel on Race, Ethnicity, and Health in Later Life.

Book Communities in Action

    Book Details:
  • Author : National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
  • Publisher : National Academies Press
  • Release : 2017-04-27
  • ISBN : 0309452961
  • Pages : 583 pages

Download or read book Communities in Action written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-04-27 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Book Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Health of Older Americans

Download or read book Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Health of Older Americans written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1997-09-23 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Older Americans, even the oldest, can now expect to live years longer than those who reached the same ages even a few decades ago. Although survival has improved for all racial and ethnic groups, strong differences persist, both in life expectancy and in the causes of disability and death at older ages. This book examines trends in mortality rates and selected causes of disability (cardiovascular disease, dementia) for older people of different racial and ethnic groups. The determinants of these trends and differences are also investigated, including differences in access to health care and experiences in early life, diet, health behaviors, genetic background, social class, wealth and income. Groups often neglected in analyses of national data, such as the elderly Hispanic and Asian Americans of different origin and immigrant generations, are compared. The volume provides understanding of research bearing on the health status and survival of the fastest-growing segment of the American population.

Book High and Rising Mortality Rates Among Working Age Adults

Download or read book High and Rising Mortality Rates Among Working Age Adults written by National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine and published by . This book was released on 2021-12-02 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Approaching Death

    Book Details:
  • Author : Committee on Care at the End of Life
  • Publisher : National Academies Press
  • Release : 1997-10-30
  • ISBN : 0309518253
  • Pages : 457 pages

Download or read book Approaching Death written by Committee on Care at the End of Life and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1997-10-30 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the end of life makes its inevitable appearance, people should be able to expect reliable, humane, and effective caregiving. Yet too many dying people suffer unnecessarily. While an "overtreated" dying is feared, untreated pain or emotional abandonment are equally frightening. Approaching Death reflects a wide-ranging effort to understand what we know about care at the end of life, what we have yet to learn, and what we know but do not adequately apply. It seeks to build understanding of what constitutes good care for the dying and offers recommendations to decisionmakers that address specific barriers to achieving good care. This volume offers a profile of when, where, and how Americans die. It examines the dimensions of caring at the end of life: Determining diagnosis and prognosis and communicating these to patient and family. Establishing clinical and personal goals. Matching physical, psychological, spiritual, and practical care strategies to the patient's values and circumstances. Approaching Death considers the dying experience in hospitals, nursing homes, and other settings and the role of interdisciplinary teams and managed care. It offers perspectives on quality measurement and improvement, the role of practice guidelines, cost concerns, and legal issues such as assisted suicide. The book proposes how health professionals can become better prepared to care well for those who are dying and to understand that these are not patients for whom "nothing can be done."

Book Challenges and Successes in Reducing Health Disparities

Download or read book Challenges and Successes in Reducing Health Disparities written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2008-06-13 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In early 2007, the Institute of Medicine convened the Roundtable on Health Disparities to increase the visibility of racial and ethnic health disparities as a national problem, to further the development of programs and strategies to reduce disparities, to foster the emergence of leadership on this issue, and to track promising activities and developments in health care that could lead to dramatically reducing or eliminating disparities. The Roundtable's first workshop, Challenges and Successes in Reducing Health Disparities, was held in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 31, 2007, and examined (1) the importance of differences in life expectancy within the United States, (2) the reasons for those differences, and (3) the implications of this information for programs and policy makers.

Book When Children Die

    Book Details:
  • Author : Institute of Medicine
  • Publisher : National Academies Press
  • Release : 2003-02-09
  • ISBN : 0309084377
  • Pages : 713 pages

Download or read book When Children Die written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-02-09 with total page 713 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The death of a child is a special sorrow. No matter the circumstances, a child's death is a life-altering experience. Except for the child who dies suddenly and without forewarning, physicians, nurses, and other medical personnel usually play a central role in the lives of children who die and their families. At best, these professionals will exemplify "medicine with a heart." At worst, families' encounters with the health care system will leave them with enduring painful memories, anger, and regrets. When Children Die examines what we know about the needs of these children and their families, the extent to which such needs areâ€"and are notâ€"being met, and what can be done to provide more competent, compassionate, and consistent care. The book offers recommendations for involving child patients in treatment decisions, communicating with parents, strengthening the organization and delivery of services, developing support programs for bereaved families, improving public and private insurance, training health professionals, and more. It argues that taking these steps will improve the care of children who survive as well as those who do notâ€"and will likewise help all families who suffer with their seriously ill or injured child. Featuring illustrative case histories, the book discusses patterns of childhood death and explores the basic elements of physical, emotional, spiritual, and practical care for children and families experiencing a child's life-threatening illness or injury.

Book Unequal Cities

    Book Details:
  • Author : Maureen R. Benjamins
  • Publisher : JHU Press
  • Release : 2021-09-07
  • ISBN : 1421440997
  • Pages : 332 pages

Download or read book Unequal Cities written by Maureen R. Benjamins and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The contributors to this edited volume explore the degree to which racial health disparities affect death rates in America's 30 largest cities. By examining mortality statistics related to leading causes of death, they are able to show that each of the cities in question has some serious work to do and that in many places the differences are more or less pronounced than in others"--

Book Systemic Racism in the United States

Download or read book Systemic Racism in the United States written by Robbie W.C. Tourse and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-05-22 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Tourse, Hamilton-Mason, and Wewiorski discuss major concepts that help explicate the systemic nature of institutionalized racism in the U.S. – with a focus on social construction, oppression, scaffolding, and institutional web – providing insight into racist thought and behavior that construct and mark people of color as 'a problem.' [...] I highly recommend this book for those who are engaged in working to combat domination and racism at the local, national, and global levels." -Gary Bailey, DHL, MSW, ACSW, Professor of Practice, Director of Urban Leadership Program, Simmons College School of Social Work This important volume provides a powerful overview of racism in the United States: what it is, how it works, and the social, cultural, and institutional structures that have evolved to keep it in place. It dissects the rise of legalized discrimination against four major racial groups (First Nations, Africans, Mexicans, and Chinese) and its perpetuation as it affects these groups and new immigrants today. The book’s scaffolding framework—which takes in institutions from the government to our educational systems—explains why racism remains in place despite waves of social change. At the same time, authors describe social justice responses being used to erode racism in its most familiar forms, and at its roots. This timely resource: Examines the sociology of discrimination as a constant in daily life. Traces the history of the legalization of racism in the United States. Locates key manifestations of racism in the American psyche. Links racism to other forms of discrimination. Identifies the interlocking components of institutionalized racism. Offers contemporary examples of resistance to racism. A forceful synthesis of history and social theory, Systemic Racism in the United States is vital reading for practitioners and other professionals in fields related to human rights, social policy, and psychology. And as a classroom text, it challenges its readers to deepen their understanding of both historical process and current developments.

Book Future Directions for the Demography of Aging

Download or read book Future Directions for the Demography of Aging written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2018-07-21 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost 25 years have passed since the Demography of Aging (1994) was published by the National Research Council. Future Directions for the Demography of Aging is, in many ways, the successor to that original volume. The Division of Behavioral and Social Research at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to produce an authoritative guide to new directions in demography of aging. The papers published in this report were originally presented and discussed at a public workshop held in Washington, D.C., August 17-18, 2017. The workshop discussion made evident that major new advances had been made in the last two decades, but also that new trends and research directions have emerged that call for innovative conceptual, design, and measurement approaches. The report reviews these recent trends and also discusses future directions for research on a range of topics that are central to current research in the demography of aging. Looking back over the past two decades of demography of aging research shows remarkable advances in our understanding of the health and well-being of the older population. Equally exciting is that this report sets the stage for the next two decades of innovative researchâ€"a period of rapid growth in the older American population.

Book The Growing Gap in Life Expectancy by Income

Download or read book The Growing Gap in Life Expectancy by Income written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-09-17 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. population is aging. Social Security projections suggest that between 2013 and 2050, the population aged 65 and over will almost double, from 45 million to 86 million. One key driver of population aging is ongoing increases in life expectancy. Average U.S. life expectancy was 67 years for males and 73 years for females five decades ago; the averages are now 76 and 81, respectively. It has long been the case that better-educated, higher-income people enjoy longer life expectancies than less-educated, lower-income people. The causes include early life conditions, behavioral factors (such as nutrition, exercise, and smoking behaviors), stress, and access to health care services, all of which can vary across education and income. Our major entitlement programs - Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Supplemental Security Income - have come to deliver disproportionately larger lifetime benefits to higher-income people because, on average, they are increasingly collecting those benefits over more years than others. This report studies the impact the growing gap in life expectancy has on the present value of lifetime benefits that people with higher or lower earnings will receive from major entitlement programs. The analysis presented in The Growing Gap in Life Expectancy by Income goes beyond an examination of the existing literature by providing the first comprehensive estimates of how lifetime benefits are affected by the changing distribution of life expectancy. The report also explores, from a lifetime benefit perspective, how the growing gap in longevity affects traditional policy analyses of reforms to the nation's leading entitlement programs. This in-depth analysis of the economic impacts of the longevity gap will inform debate and assist decision makers, economists, and researchers.

Book American Apartheid

    Book Details:
  • Author : Douglas S. Massey
  • Publisher : Harvard University Press
  • Release : 1993
  • ISBN : 9780674018211
  • Pages : 312 pages

Download or read book American Apartheid written by Douglas S. Massey and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This powerful and disturbing book clearly links persistent poverty among blacks in the United States to the unparalleled degree of deliberate segregation they experience in American cities. American Apartheid shows how the black ghetto was created by whites during the first half of the twentieth century in order to isolate growing urban black populations. It goes on to show that, despite the Fair Housing Act of 1968, segregation is perpetuated today through an interlocking set of individual actions, institutional practices, and governmental policies. In some urban areas the degree of black segregation is so intense and occurs in so many dimensions simultaneously that it amounts to "hypersegregation." The authors demonstrate that this systematic segregation of African Americans leads inexorably to the creation of underclass communities during periods of economic downturn. Under conditions of extreme segregation, any increase in the overall rate of black poverty yields a marked increase in the geographic concentration of indigence and the deterioration of social and economic conditions in black communities. As ghetto residents adapt to this increasingly harsh environment under a climate of racial isolation, they evolve attitudes, behaviors, and practices that further marginalize their neighborhoods and undermine their chances of success in mainstream American society. This book is a sober challenge to those who argue that race is of declining significance in the United States today.

Book Health United States  2015  With Special Feature on Race and Ethnic Health Disparities

Download or read book Health United States 2015 With Special Feature on Race and Ethnic Health Disparities written by National Center for Health Statistics and published by Health United States. This book was released on 2016-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book The Black Book of Communism

    Book Details:
  • Author : Stéphane Courtois
  • Publisher : Harvard University Press
  • Release : 1999
  • ISBN : 9780674076082
  • Pages : 920 pages

Download or read book The Black Book of Communism written by Stéphane Courtois and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 920 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This international bestseller plumbs recently opened archives in the former Soviet bloc to reveal the accomplishments of communism around the world. The book is the first attempt to catalogue and analyse the crimes of communism over 70 years.

Book The Death Gap

    Book Details:
  • Author : David A. Ansell, MD
  • Publisher : University of Chicago Press
  • Release : 2021-06-16
  • ISBN : 022679671X
  • Pages : 270 pages

Download or read book The Death Gap written by David A. Ansell, MD and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-06-16 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We hear plenty about the widening income gap between the rich and the poor in America and about the expanding distance separating the haves and the have-nots. But when detailing the many things that the poor have not, we often overlook the most critical—their health. The poor die sooner. Blacks die sooner. And poor urban blacks die sooner than almost all other Americans. In nearly four decades as a doctor at hospitals serving some of the poorest communities in Chicago, David A. Ansell, MD, has witnessed firsthand the lives behind these devastating statistics. In The Death Gap, he gives a grim survey of these realities, drawn from observations and stories of his patients. While the contrasts and disparities among Chicago’s communities are particularly stark, the death gap is truly a nationwide epidemic—as Ansell shows, there is a thirty-five-year difference in life expectancy between the healthiest and wealthiest and the poorest and sickest American neighborhoods. If you are poor, where you live in America can dictate when you die. It doesn’t need to be this way; such divisions are not inevitable. Ansell calls out the social and cultural arguments that have been raised as ways of explaining or excusing these gaps, and he lays bare the structural violence—the racism, economic exploitation, and discrimination—that is really to blame. Inequality is a disease, Ansell argues, and we need to treat and eradicate it as we would any major illness. To do so, he outlines a vision that will provide the foundation for a healthier nation—for all. As the COVID-19 mortality rates in underserved communities proved, inequality is all around us, and often the distance between high and low life expectancy can be a matter of just a few blocks. Updated with a new foreword by Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot and an afterword by Ansell, The Death Gap speaks to the urgency to face this national health crisis head-on.

Book International Handbook of Adult Mortality

Download or read book International Handbook of Adult Mortality written by Richard G. Rogers and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-02-18 with total page 621 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook presents a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of unprecedented substantive, theoretical, methodological, and statistical developments and insights, and an in-depth examination of trends and patterns, in adult mortality around the world. With over two dozen chapters and more than 50 authors, this volume draws from top international mortality experts to provide one of the best overviews of life expectancy extant. The book documents remarkable gains in life expectancy, which stand out as one of the most important accomplishments of the twentieth century. Individuals in more developed countries can expect to live longer now than ever before, especially the Japanese who enjoy record-setting life expectancies. The book also explores unfortunate declines in life expectancy in selected countries brought on by such factors as infectious diseases; accidents, suicides, and homicides; and political and economic conflict and turmoil. This book synthesizes the wealth of mortality information available, clearly articulates the central findings to-date, identifies the most appropriate datasets and methods currently available, illuminates the central research questions, and develops an agenda to address these research questions. The authors carefully examine central factors related to mortality, including health behaviors, socioeconomic status, social relations, biomarkers, and genetic factors. The book will prove especially relevant to researchers, students, and policy makers within social and health sciences who want to better understand international trends and patterns in adult mortality.