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Health Disparities

Resources for students researching health disparities
This guide is focused on resources on health disparities. It is designed to assist students working on assignments or projects on this topic.

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: National Cancer Institute (NIH)

Disparities Search Tips

  • PubMed is your "go to" research database for Public Health topics including Health/Healthcare Disparities.
  • Depending on the issue being researched, you might want to consider searching in research databases that cover other health-related subject areas. For example, if you are researching a health behavior, you might search the Psychology Databases. Or if you are researching a health education topic, consider searching in the Education Databases.

Take the time to consider carefully the subject of your literature search.

BE SPECIFIC when choosing topical words for your disparity.

You may need to do some preliminary research to learn more about the topic so that you can understand which concepts are significant to your question.

  • What words will the authors be using in article titles and abstracts to describe the aspects of the topic?
    • Example: surgery not operation
  • Use medical terms for diseases, therapeutics, diagnostic or surgical procedures.
    • Example: fracture not broken bone
  • Consider specific disease entities.
    • Example: myocardial infarction rather than the broad topic of heart disease
  • Consider concepts related to causation, related or contributing factors.
    • Example: sidewalks for pedestrian safety

Search with subject headings rather than keywords when applicable headings are available.

  • Search the MeSH Database to identify useful subject headings and build your PubMed search.

**Medical Subject Headings are ideal search terms for this part of your Disparities Search because there can be much variant terminology used to describe specific population groups,

For racial/ethnic population groups, consider headings included here:

  • Ethnic Groups (for groups sharing common cultural heritage)
    • For example, Hispanic Americans
  • Continental Population Groups (for racial groups)
    • For example, Indians, North American

For populations defined by geographic location such as region, state, particular city, consider headings included here:

  • United States
    • For example, Appalachian Region
    • Including all terms in the hierarchy will also include articles about particular states, cities within the region.
  • Rural Population
  • Urban Population

For populations defined by socioeconomic status, consider headings like these:

  • Poverty
  • Homeless Persons
  • Single Person

Limit your PubMed search retrieval to articles discussing particular age groups using these strategies:

  • Filter Options
    • This PubMed feature limits your search retrieval only to records tagged with the appropriate age group(s).
    • Although it requires a number of mouse clicks, this is the BEST strategy to limit to age groups in PubMed.
    • Learn about filters here!
  • Subject Headings
    • PubMed records also have MeSH subject terms noting Age Groups.
  • Keywords
    • Consider the terms authors may use to describe individuals in the age group.
    • Using keywords can be imprecise because individuals in particular age groups often are referred to in many ways, for example:
      • adolescents OR teenagers OR high school students
      • elderly OR aged OR seniors
    • For most databases other than PubMed, you will need to use keywords to search for age groups.

Use the filter options to limit your retrieval to articles discussing a specific sex:

  • This PubMed feature limits your search retrieval only to records tagged with the appropriate sex.
  • Note that the articles may also present data for both sexes.
  • Although it requires a number of mouse clicks, this is the BEST strategy to limit to specific sex in PubMed.
  • Here is a video showing how the Filter Options work.

Search "disparity" as a topical concept in itself.

Try this search string:

disparit* OR inequit* OR inequalit*

Other keywords to consider:

  • discrimination
  • differences
  • barriers

Some MeSH headings to consider: (only used on records 2008-current)

  • Healthcare Disparities
  • Health Status Disparities
  • Minority Health

Try this "canned" search strategy!

  • Click on the "health disparities search" link at the top of this NLM Health Disparities Home Page.
  • THEN combine this search with your disparities topical search using the Boolean connector "AND."
  • Note that this search uses this detailed search strategy which includes many minority groups and is not suitable for searching for disparities for particular minorities.

Searching specifically for studies of interventions addressing health/healthcare disparities is difficult.

Authors use many words to describe the particular interventions being tested.

Try this simple search string for a start:

intervention OR program

Some other keywords to consider:

  • strategy/strategies
  • education
  • prevention
  • promotion
  • behavior -- including specific modifiable behaviors by name

Some Medical Subject Headings to consider:

  • Health Promotion
  • Health Education
  • Program Evaluation
  • Community Health Services and topics below in the hierarchy
  • With any disease use the subheading /prevention and control

Consider limiting to Publication Characteristics (such as Clinical Trial, Controlled Study, etc.) using Article Types Filter Options.

Try the "Clinical Study Categories" search in PubMed Clinical Queries to retrieve studies using high quality research methodologies:

  • Start your search at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
  • Click on the Clinical Queries link in the center column of the screen under PubMed Tools.
  • Results of the "Clinical Study Categories" search will display in the left column.
  • Click on "See all" at the bottom to view the entire search result.