Disparities exist in nearly every aspect of health, including quality of health care, access to care, utilization of health care and health outcomes. Despite notable improvements in the overall health of the United States during the past two decades, there continues to be striking disparities in the burden of illness and death experienced across populations by race, ethnicity, sex, age, rurality, zip code and neighborhood.
Cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death, further highlights the urgency of addressing these disparities. A disproportionate death rate and disease prevalence of heart failure remains among multiple racial and ethnic groups and female patients. For example, according to a paper published in the July 2022 issue of Circulation, while age-adjusted mortality rates declined among both Black and white adults, Black women and men encountered higher cardiovascular mortality rates than white persons between 1999 and 2019. Furthermore, younger Black women are more than twice as likely to experience premature death from cardiovascular causes than white women, and Black women and men living in rural areas experience the highest cardiovascular mortality rates nationwide.
The Cardiovascular Quality and Population Health Research program is working to understand the impact of the various facets of disparities on cardiovascular disease, develop strategies to address them and implement best practices.
