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Welcome to the Center for Health
Disparities Research Web Site!

Regretfully, due to severe budget constraints at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)  and the School of Nursing, the Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR) will close effective July 1, 2008.

Our Advisory Board and Center Partners have been a vital part of the CHDR since it began in 2004.  In its short life, the CHDR was very active and engaged in a number of collaborative grant and community-based projects.  We hope that the CHDR’s work in addressing health disparities will continue through the work of committed community-based researchers and agencies that formed the original partnership.  We regret that we can no longer participate in this important work and that our formal partnership via the CHDR will end.

We want to extend heartfelt thanks to all of our partners and advisory board members for their guidance, partnership, and collaborative efforts in the fight to eliminate disparities in health care and in the outcomes for urban and rural racial and ethnic minority and other underserved populations.
The Center’s mission was to envision a nation where underserved populations have an equal opportunity to live long, healthy and productive lives.   We close the Center knowing that the good work our partners do continues and will help achieve this goal.  We wish you the very best.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us at the School of Nursing.

Deborah Messecar, PHD, MPH, RN, CNS
 Associate Professor
Oregon Health & Science University
School of Nursing
Phone:  503/494-3573
E-mail:  messecar@ohsu.edu

May 2008


American Stroke Month
inquires@heart.org

Asthma and Allergy Month
http://www.aafa.org

Clean Air Month
http://www.lungusa.org

Hepatitis Awareness Month
http://www.hepfi.org

National Arthritis Month
http://www.arthritis.org

National High Blood Pressure Education Month
http://www.hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/nhbpep_kit/

MORE ACTION IS NEEDED

Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most in human.

The Rev. Martin Luther King
Chicago, March 25, 1966

"Prescription for Diversity"

The current shortages in several health care professions nationwide have led hospitals and systems to analyze ways to effectively shore up attrition and enhance retention, and to make en roads in understanding the demographics of patients and their caregivers. This, in turn, has placed a spotlight on the small number of minority nurses and allied health professionals. Most of these groups continue to be overwhelmingly comprised of Caucasian women.

The Sullivan Commission on Diversity in Healthcare Workforce recently studied this issue and found that African-Americans, Hispanics, American Indians and certain segment's of the nations Asian/Pacific Islander population, are not present in significant numbers in the health professions.

The commission made key recommendations to remedy this. they include the formidable task of increasing diversity in the health care professions by changing the culture of health professions schools.

http:/www.hodes.com/publications/pdfs/diversitymatters/
diversitymatters_apr05.pdf

The Center's projects are focused on community-based participatory research with diverse racial and ethnic groups and other undeserved populations (e.g. poor and geographically isolated populations).

We currently are working with several state and local organizations (Portland State University, Providence Medical Center, Multnomah County Health Department, and the Oregon Department of Health & Human Services amongst many others) on seven funded projects on subjects such as:

  • Intimate Partner Violence
  • Healthy Birth/Infant Mortality
  • Genomic information for the medically undeserved

DID YOU KNOW?

  • Average age of working RN is 45
  • 9% of current RN workforce is under 30 years of age
  • 31% of current RN workforce is under 40 years of age
  • Average age of RN graduate is 30
  • 6% of RN's are men
  • 135of RN's are minorities
  • By 2010, more than 40% of RN's will be 50 or older

African American Wellness Village
Portland, Oregon

Visit the CDC Chronic Disease Web site.

Corliss McKeever, MSW
Co-Director, OHSU School of Nursing
Center for Health Disparities Research

Interesting Facts About Age

By 2020, there will be 53.2 million Americans older than age 65--forming 15.8 percent of the population--and 6.5 million of those will be over 85, according to the Census bureau.

The number of Americans age 65 and over increased ten times during the 20th century. The 85 and over population increased more than thirty fold over the century. The entire population, in the meantime, more than tripled.

The United States ranks second among nations of the world in the number of people aged 80 and over. (China ranks first) Although the United States contains less than 5 percent of the world's population, 13 percent of its people are 80 and over.

Cancer Among Men

Note: The numbers in parentheses are the rates per 100,000 persons.

Three most common cancers among men:

  • Prostate cancer (150.0)
  • Lung cancer:
    Second among white (85.8), black (106.1), Asian/Pacific Islander (50.9), and American Indian/Alaska Native (54.0) men.
    Third among Hispanic men (48.6).
  • Colorectal cancer:
    Second among Hispanic men (49.3).
    Third among white (59.2), black (69.4), Asian/Pacific Islander (45.0), and American Indian/Alaska Native (41.9) men.

Three leading causes of cancer death among men:

  • Lung cancer (71.9):
    First among men of all racial and Hispanic origin populations.
  • Prostate cancer:
    Second among white (24.5), black (58.0), American Indian/Alaska Native (18.2) and Hispanic (20.4) men.
  • Colorectal cancer:
    Third among white (22.4), black (32.1), Asian/Pacific Islander (14.0), American Indian/Alaska Native (15.4), and Hispanic (16.9) men.
  • Liver cancer:
    Second among Asian/Pacific Islander men (15.6).

    *All races combined rate is presented when ranking of cancer sites did not differ across race and ethnicity; race- or ethnic-specific rates are presented when ranking differed depending on race and ethnicity.

All cancers combined, men:

  • Incidence rates are highest among blacks (611.0), followed by whites (530.9), Hispanics (421.1), Asians/Pacific Islanders (329.3), and American Indians/Alaska Natives (307.4).
  • Death rates are highest among blacks (311.4), followed by whites (230.6), Hispanics (158.1), American Indians/Alaska Natives (142.3), and Asians/Pacific Islanders (138.4).

All cancers combined, women:

  • Incidence rates are highest among whites (406.7), followed by blacks (379.1), Hispanics (316.8), Asians/Pacific Islanders (263.9), and American Indians/Alaska Natives (247.7).

  • Death rates are highest among blacks (188.2), followed by whites (159.7), American Indians/Alaska Natives (106.8), Hispanics (106.3), and Asians/Pacific Islanders (97.3).

Among the five races and ethnicities presented:

  • American Indian/Alaska Native men have the lowest cancer incidence rates; however, Asian/Pacific Islander men have the lowest cancer death rates.

    White women have the highest cancer incidence rates; however, black women have the highest cancer death rates.

    American Indian/Alaska Native women have the lowest cancer incidence rates and the third highest cancer death rates.

    Cancer incidence and Death Rates for men are highest among blacks

    Cancer Incidence rates for women are highest among whites

    Cancer death rates for women are highest among blacks

Source: U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group. Atlanta(GA): Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Cancer Institute; 2007.

Please send questions or comments to
chdr@ohsu.edu

OHSU Center for Health Disparities Research
Portland, Oregon
last updated 5/28/2008
 

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