Welcome
“The future health of the nation will be determined to a large extent by how effectively we work with communities to reduce and eliminate health disparities between non-minority and minority populations experiencing disproportionate burdens of disease, disability, and premature death.“
~ Guiding Principle for Improving Minority Health, CDC Office of Minority Health
Simply stated, a health disparity happens when one group of people is seriously affected by illness and/or death more than another group of people. In Worcester, one example is the fact that babies born to Black women die more often than babies born to White women.
A great deal of research has been done to try to learn why health disparities exist across the nation. This is such as serious national concern that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made it one of thier prorities. They created the Healthy People 2010 initiative designed to achieve two overarching goals: 1) Increase quality and years of healthy life and; 2) Eliminate health disparities.