Dear Barbara,
I don't mean to sound awkward, but isn't the goal of "eliminating health disparities by race/ethnicity, gender and income/socioeconomic status" verging on the ridiculous.
What sort of disparities? (e.g access, utilisation or outcome? Did you mean 'health' or 'health care')
How can they possibly be eliminated by 2010? (there's hardly any proven, effective policies to reduce disparities in health)
And won't at least some of the disparities possibly be equitable (i.e. arising from choice)?
Perhaps its just me, but I see the creation of equitable societies as rooted in ethics and social science rather than lobbying.
Adam
-----Original Message-----
From: Barbara Krimgold [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wed 8/14/2002 2:53 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: Re: SES and the doctor-patient communication
You might look at work in the US around Race and Unequal Treatment,
in particular the recent study of the US Institute of Medicine, "Unequal Treatment:
Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care." In the US, we
have a goal, in our governmental health document, Healthy People 2010,
of eliminating health disparities by race/ethnicity, gender and income/
socioeconomic status. Since the US does not always collect data by
class/SES, much of our literature -- literally hundreds of studies of
differential treatment for cancer and cardiovascular disease, etc --
uses race as a proxy for class (plus other discriminatory treatment)
and documents unequal treatment by race.
This might provide a comparison to your work in the EU on doctor-patient
communication by SES, the "white coat" phenomenon etc.
If you find this idea of interest, you can find the study on the IOM website,
www.nas.edu. Look under www.nas.edu/health and you will find the
executive summary of the report which you can read or order online,
if you find it of interest.
Best regards,
Barbara Krimgold
Center for the Advancement of Health
2000 Florida Ave. NW, Suite 210
Washington, DC 20009
Tel: 202-387-2829 ext. 109
Fax: 202-387-2857
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Jan De Maeseneer [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 6:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fw: SES and the doctor-patient communication
----- Original Message -----
From: Jan De Maeseneer <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, August 02, 2002 4:25 PM
Subject: SES and the doctor-patient communication
Dear Mr. Oliver,
I work as a PhD and assistent at the University of Ghent. In february this year I received a scholarship for a project about the influence of the socio-economic status of patients on the doctor-patient communication. The aim is to review the literature and to use the Eurocom Study-database to perform a quantitative study on this subject. Unfortunately, little has been published concerning this particular part of inequalities in health.
I performed a thourough search using Pubmed and journal databases, now I am writing this email to several people who I think might have interesting articles or other links that could help me.
Would you be so kind as to consider my question?
Any tips can be send to my private email: [log in to unmask]
Thank you for your cooperation!
Dr. Stéphanie De Maesschalck
Vakgroep Huisartsgeneeskunde
en Eerstelijnsgezondheidszorg.
Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care.
U.Z. - 1K3
De Pintelaan 185
B-9000 Gent
Tel: ++32 9 240 35 42
Fax: ++32 9 240 49 67
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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