MPH-606 HEALTHCARE DISPARITIES
Access to quality care is important to eliminate health disparities and increase the quality and years of healthy life for all persons in the United States. This main purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of how social factors contribute to racial/ ethnic, socioeconomic and gender disparities in health and health care. We will examine how dyadic relationships such as interpersonal forms of discrimination, marriage, and social ties may contribute to health disparities. We will also examine the ways in which neighborhood and community context, as well as inequalities in socioeconomic status materially shape health and access to health care services. Individual characteristics such as acculturation and patient preferences may also contribute to disparities and will be explored briefly, but are not a major focus of this course.