Health Disparities Interdisciplinary Concentration

The Health Disparities Interdisciplinary Concentration is now available to Master of Public Health (MPH) students at the University of Minnesota. Recently, the School of Public Health and the University of Minnesota Board of Regents approved this new interdisciplinary concentration area.

MPH students have the option to add the concentration area to their program of study. This concentration area addresses the unequal burden of health risks, morbidity, and mortality experienced by minority cultural and social groups in the United States, as well as unequal quality of and access to health care.

Achieving optimum health for all segments of society is a central goal of the federal health initiative Healthy People 2010 and also a concern in Minnesota. Despite Minnesota's ranking as one of the nation's healthiest states, it has some of the largest gaps among cultural and social groups in health indicators.

The Health Disparities Concentration joins three other interdisciplinary areas--Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Global Health, and Public Health Policy.

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Significance

The proposed School of Public Health's Health Disparities Interdisciplinary Concentration addresses the unequal burden of health risks, morbidity and mortality experienced by minority cultural and social groups in the U.S., as well as unequal quality of and access to healthcare. Achieving optimum health for all segments of our society is a central goal of Healthy People 2010, and a concern in Minnesota as well. Despite Minnesota's ranking as one of the nation's healthiest states, Minnesota has some of the largest gaps among cultural and social groups in health indicators. For example, according to the Minnesota Department of Health:

• Infant mortality rates among the American Indians and African Americans are two to three times higher than for the state as a whole.
• Among African American youth aged 15-24, firearm injury mortality rates are 15 times greater than the rates of all ages, races, and genders combined.
• Women from minority communities are less likely to receive sufficient prenatal care compared to other women.
• Death rates for African Americans and American Indians are two to three times that of the state as a whole.
• Rates of diabetes, hypertension, cancer and HIV/AIDS are higher for many minority communities compared to the state as a whole.

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Learning Goals

This concentration offers students the opportunity to:

• learn about the extent and nature of these disparities, and methods for documenting and measuring the gaps in health achievement;
• analyze the roots of health disparities in our cultural histories and the process by which these gaps are generated and perpetuated;
• understand the roles of our systems of healthcare and public health in generating health disparities
• explore potential practice and policy solutions for eliminating health disparities;
• recognize the unique and integral role of cultural communities and social groups in defining the problems associated with their health and directing the solutions.

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Requirements

A minimum of 12 credits is required for the concentration. Each HDIC student is required to complete:

• CSpH 5115 - Cultural Knowledge, Health, and Contemporary Cultural Communities (3 credits) Spring
• PubH 6800 - Health Disparities Capstone Seminar (1 credit) Spring
• Electives: 8 additional credits must be selected from the attached list of approved courses (note that some courses are not offered every year); these credits may also include 2 credits from fieldwork and/or master's project with approval of a HDIC advisor.
• Students may request consideration of other courses from HDIC advisors.

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HDIC Faculty

Kathleen Call and Jean Forster will serve as faculty co-directors.  Other faculty HDIC advisors include Chuck Oberg, Wendy Hellerstedt, Rhonda Jones Webb, Donna McAlpine, Patricia McGovern.