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Using discharge data from 10 states, this study estimates the effects of race and ethnicity on the likelihood of being hospitalized for a preventable condition—an indicator of limited access to primary care. The authors find that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to be hospitalized for preventable conditions. In particular, controlling for differences in patients' health care needs, socioeconomic status, insurance coverage, and the availability of primary care, Hispanic children, working-age African American adults, and elderly patients from both minority groups are at greater risk than are similar white patients.

Millions of low-income adults are beginning to gain Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. To forecast the resulting need for primary care providers, we estimate the effect of Medicaid take-up on visits to office-based primary care providers, including clinics. We estimate that adults with Medicaid coverage at any point in the year have an average of 1.32 visits per year to primary care providers, 0.48 more visits than low-income adults without Medicaid. Consequently, we project a need for 2,113 additional primary care providers (range: 1,130-3,138) if all states expand Medicaid. Our estimates are somewhat lower than several recent forecasts, which may not have controlled adequately for selection bias, and which used non-representative samples for forecasting. Our findings shed light on disparities in access to care, particularly in counties with relatively few primary care providers per capita. Efforts to expand access to primary care should focus on where providers practice, rather than simply training more providers.

To determine if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Readmission Reduction Program reduced hospital discharges for penalized conditions in minority and low-income communities, we used hospital discharge data for 2006 and 2013 from Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Wisconsin and readmission data from the Medicare Hospital Compare website. Negative binomial regression was used for 6,564 zip codes for each year to estimate the association between the expected penalty for an excess readmission in the hospital service area and the number of hospital discharges for penalized conditions (acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia) for zip codes. The results showed that the expected penalty for excess readmissions had a negative association with the number of discharges for acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia. The negative association increased with the percentage of minority residents but not with the poverty rate.

This article discusses the influence of family structure on children's use of mental health services and explores whether a family's dependency on government assistance compensates for the effect of family income on children's use of services. Children in nontraditional families are at greater risk of using mental health services and have more mental health visits. Family participation in government subsidies programs offsets the influence of family income on the use of mental health services.

Racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes are widely reported, but research has largely focused on differences in quality of inpatient and urgent care to explain these disparate outcomes. The objective of this review is to synthesize recent evidence on racial and ethnic disparities in management of CVD in the ambulatory setting. Database searches yielded 550 articles of which 25 studies met the inclusion criteria. Reviewed studies were categorized into non-interventional studies examining the association between race and receipt of ambulatory CVD services with observational designs, and interventional studies evaluating specific clinical courses of action intended to ameliorate disparities. Based on the Donabedian framework, this review demonstrates that significant racial/ethnic disparities persist in process and outcome measures of quality of ambulatory CVD care. Multimodal interventions were most effective in reducing disparities in CVD outcomes.

We compared race disparities in health services use in a national sample of adults from the 2002 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and data from the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities Project, a 2003 survey of adult residents from a low-income integrated urban community in Maryland. In the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data, African Americans were less likely to have a health care visit compared with Whites. However, in the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities Project, the integrated community, African Americans were more likely to have a health care visit than Whites. The race disparities in the incidence rate of health care use among persons who had at least one visit were similar in both samples. Our findings suggest that disparities in health care utilization may differ across communities and that residential segregation may be a confounding factor.

Using data from the 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and the 2000 Census, the authors explored whether race/ethnic disparities in health care use were associated with residential segregation. They used five measures of health care use: office-based physician visits, outpatient department physician visits, visits to nurses and physician's assistants, visits to other health professionals, and having a usual source of care. For each individual, the authors controlled for age, gender, marital status, insurance status, income, educational attainment, employment status, region, and health status. The authors used the racial–ethnic composition of the zip code to control for residential segregation. The findings suggest that disparities in health care utilization are related to both individuals' racial and ethnic identity and the racial and ethnic composition of their communities. Therefore, efforts to improve access to health care services and to eliminate health care disparities for African Americans and Hispanics should not only focus on individual-level factors but also include community-level factors.

Police violence is a multidimensional issue that requires consideration of the violent events and how these events reflect systemic oppression. Violence and policing practices are influenced by race and ethnicity, place/neighborhood, structural inequality, and racism. We performed an integrated literature review to critically evaluate the current evidence, focusing on the racial composition of communities and neighborhoods and its association with police-involved violence and fatal shootings between 2000 and 2022. We used Scopus and Web of Science to include peer-reviewed articles in English that studied racial/ethnic differences in police-involved violence in the United States between January 2000 and February 2022. We excluded prior systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and articles on drug-related arrests. Using a PRISMA approach from 651 identified articles, we included 37 articles. Our findings showed that racial/ethnic minorities are disproportionately stopped, experience a higher probability of arrest, and are more commonly subjected to police-involved fatal shootings. Victims are more likely to live in neighborhoods with lower income and distressed communities of color, higher poverty ratios, and the highest levels of criminal violence. Citizens reporting of negative interactions with police is strongly associated with race/ethnicity. Maintaining the highest standards of professional practice consistent with the law and protections guaranteed by the Constitution may reduce police violence. In addressing police violence, policymakers not only need to consider the multidisciplinary nature of vulnerability to address the needs of vulnerable populations and create a collaborative environment but also to control police violence. Considering community-based approaches, encouraging training to interact with minority individuals, and adjusting the racial composition of the police officers by the racial composition of communities are other strategies; more importantly, prioritizing strategies to reduce social inequality and structural racism are crucial.

Each decade, the American Heart Association (AHA) develops an Impact Goal to guide its overall strategic direction and investments in its research, quality improvement, advocacy, and public health programs. Guided by the AHA's new Mission Statement, to be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives, the 2030 Impact Goal is anchored in an understanding that to achieve cardiovascular health for all, the AHA must include a broader vision of health and well-being and emphasize health equity. In the next decade, by 2030, the AHA will strive to equitably increase healthy life expectancy beyond current projections, with global and local collaborators, from 66 years of age to at least 68 years of age across the United States and from 64 years of age to at least 67 years of age worldwide. The AHA commits to developing additional targets for equity and well-being to accompany this overarching Impact Goal. To attain the 2030 Impact Goal, we recommend a thoughtful evaluation of interventions available to the public, patients, providers, healthcare delivery systems, communities, policy makers, and legislators. This presidential advisory summarizes the task force's main considerations in determining the 2030 Impact Goal and the metrics to monitor progress. It describes the aspiration that these goals will be achieved by working with a diverse community of volunteers, patients, scientists, healthcare professionals, and partner organizations needed to ensure success.