Health Disparities

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) defines health disparities as "population-specific differences in the presence of disease, health outcomes, or access to health care."

The AAFP has collected the resources listed below to help you address the issues related to health disparities among your patient population.

Minority Health Resources -- Resources for women, underserved populations, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender including links to Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) and the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities.

Health Literacy Resources -- Low literacy patient education information, health literacy toolkits, pamphlets and other resources developed by national organizations, associations and the Federal government.

People with Disabilities -- Information for individuals with disabilities. Includes information from the American Association of People with Disabilities, Easter Seals, and government agencies.

Language Health Resources -- Health resources available in Cambodian/Khmer, Chinese, Deaf and Hard of Hearing, French, German, Hmong, Korean, Laotian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese. Included in this information are sites that have health resources available in many languages. Links have also been provided for medical dictionaries and glossaries.

Interpretation Resources -- Includes links to companies that provide interpretation and translation services, as well as information from the U.S. government on implementing language access services in health care facilities.