Minority Health Updates from AHRQ

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) sent this bulletin at 10/15/2012 07:25 AM EDT

The following new items have been posted:

Disparities in Healthcare Quality Among Racial and Ethnic Groups

Selected Findings From the 2011 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports

Fact Sheet

Despite improvements, differences persist in health care quality among racial and ethnic minority groups. People in low-income families also experience poorer quality care. This fact sheet discusses differences between groups in terms of relative rates, which is the ratio of the comparison group (e.g., Black) to a baseline group (e.g., White).
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Introduction
Racial and Ethnic Minorities
Barriers to Access to Quality Health Care
Summary
For More Information

Introduction

Each year since 2003, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has reported on progress and opportunities for improving health care quality and reducing health care disparities. As mandated by the U.S. Congress in 42 U.S.C. 299, the National Healthcare Quality Report (NHQR) focuses on “national trends in the quality of health care provided to the American people” while the National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR) focuses on “prevailing disparities in health care delivery as it relates to racial factors and socioeconomic factors in priority populations.”

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Racial and Ethnic Minorities

In 2010, about 41% of the U.S. population identified themselves as members of racial or ethnic minority groups. More than half of the growth in the total population of the United States between 2000 and 2010 was due to an increase in the Hispanic population. By 2050, it is projected that these groups will account for almost half of the U.S. population.
For the 2010 U.S. census data, the Census Bureau reported that the United States had 42 million Blacks or African Americans (13.6% of the U.S. population); 50.4 million Hispanics or Latinos (16.3%); 17.3 million Asians (5.6%); 1.2 million Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders (NHOPIs) (0.4%); and 5.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) (1.7%). Almost half of the AI/AN population reported multiple races and 78% indicated that they lived outside of Federal trust land.
Racial and ethnic minorities are more likely than non-Hispanic Whites to be poor or near poor. In addition, Hispanics, Blacks, and some Asian subgroups are less likely than non-Hispanic Whites to have a high school education.
Disparities in quality of care are common:

Adults age 65 and over received worse care than adults ages 18-44 for 39% of quality measures.
Blacks received worse care than Whites for 41% of quality measures.
Hispanics received worse care than non-Hispanic Whites for 39% of measures.
Asians and AI/ANs received worse care than Whites for nearly 30% of quality measures.
Poor people received worse care than high-income people for 47% of measures.

Disparities in access are also common, especially among Hispanics and poor people:

Adults age 65 and over rarely had worse access to care than adults ages 18-44.
Blacks had worse access to care than Whites for 32% of access measures.
Asians had worse access to care than Whites for 17% of access measures.
AI/ANs had worse access to care than Whites for 62% of access measures.
Hispanics had worse access to care than non-Hispanic Whites for 63% of access measures.
Poor people had worse access to care than high-income people for 89% of access measures.

Few disparities in quality of care are getting better:

The gap in quality between adults age 65 and over and adults ages 18-44 improved for about one-quarter of the measures.
Few disparities in quality of care related to race, ethnicity, or income showed significant improvement although the number of disparities that were getting smaller exceeded the number of disparities that were getting larger.

Select for a table of the largest racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities that are not improving.
Largest racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities*