Placing Health Equity Front and Center
A comprehensive research initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health – National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), El Centro develops, tests and disseminates culturally tailored interventions to improve the health of groups who are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, drug abuse, intimate partner and family violence, and co-occurring mental and physical disorders. Through research, education, and collaboration with community and academic partners, El Centro advances the science of reducing health disparities in Hispanics, blacks, sexual minorities and people in Caribbean nations and Latin America.
El Centro strives to serve as a leader and resource in enhance health disparities research capacity, knowledge, competence and practice at the University of Miami, in the South Florida community, nationally and internationally.
El Centro pursues these overarching aims through the following thematic approaches which inform all activities,
- Development, evaluation and dissemination of culturally-tailored behavioral interventions;
- Addressing culturally-related underlying root causes and protective factors that impact multiple health disparity conditions (e.g., family functioning, discrimination and stigma, acculturative stress, cultural values, and community empowerment);
- Culturally informed, community-engaged and technology-assisted methodologies for research, training and dissemination;
- Nurturing the career development of emerging health disparities investigators, particularly those from health disparity populations, and
- Interdisciplinary team science.
What are Health Disparities?
“A particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social or economic disadvantage. Health disparities adversely affect groups of people who have systematically experienced greater social and/or economic obstacles to health and/or a clean environment based on their racial or ethnic group; religion; socioeconomic status; gender; age; mental health; cognitive, sensory, or physical disability; sexual orientation; geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion.”
Source: National Partnership for Action to end Health Disparities http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/npa/
“Health disparities refer to differences between groups of people. These differences can affect how frequently a disease affects a group, how many people get sick, or how often the disease causes death.
Many different populations are affected by disparities. These include:
- Racial and ethnic minorities
- Residents of rural areas
- Women, children, the elderly
- Persons with disabilities”
Source: MedlinePlus http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthdisparities.html
