OHSU

About Project Intersect

Project Intersect: Addressing Health Disparities at the Intersection of Race, Ethnicity, and Disability includes several different studies to help us understand some of the problems and find out where more research is needed.  Our goals are to:

1) Identify current efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care and health promotion and determine to what extent adults with disabilities are included in these efforts. 
We are doing this by: 

  • Reviewing abstracts of federally-funded grant research
  • Reviewing programs funded by several foundations that are very active in health disparities work
  • Contacting Offices of Multicultural Health in each state to learn about programs available at the state level

2) Examine quantitative evidence of disparities in health care access and quality related to the combination of race and ethnicity and the presence and characteristics of disability. 
We are doing this by analyzing data from two national surveys:

  • Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)
  • Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)

3) Identify existing information and generate new knowledge on barriers to health care experienced by members of underserved racial and ethnic groups with disabilities. 
There are two steps to meeting this goal:

  • Review published research on barriers to health care
  • Hold focus groups with people with disabilities in underserved racial and ethnic groups to learn about their experiences with health care

4) Develop and disseminate recommendations on ways to improve access to and quality of health care and health promotion efforts for people with disabilities in underserved racial and ethnic groups.
This will include:

  • Reviewing what was learned through our studies and identifying key barriers and gaps
  • Holding a national conference to share our findings and discuss  recommendations for addressing gaps and barriers

FUNDING

Project Intersect is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) under Cooperative Agreement U01DD000231 to the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD).