Race, class, and human rights: How structural inequalities affect health

The diversity of the American population is one of our society’s greatest assets, but the richness of this feature is overshadowed by the disproportionate burden of disease and illness borne by America’s racial and ethnic minority populations.  In 1970, all minorities groups, including African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans, comprised only 12.3% of the U.S. population.  Today, minorities in the United States account for nearly 25% of this country’s population. As groups currently experiencing poorer health status are expected to grow as a proportion of the total U.S. population, the future health of America as a whole will be influenced substantially by improving the health of these racial and ethnic minorities. 
Compelling evidence of the disparate health status of America’s racial and ethnic minority populations is documented in the form of shorter life expectancies and higher rates of cancer, birth defects, infant mortality, asthma, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, as well as a plethora of other diseases and conditions.  African Americans are three times more likely to develop some form of kidney disease than their Caucasian counterparts, and they also develop kidney failure from hypertension at six times the rate of whites, an increased risk that can be partially explained by the higher number of African Americans who experience diabetes and high blood pressure.  Furthermore, African American men are plagued by a significantly higher risk of developing certain urological diseases.
The health disparities experienced by minorities permeate all health areas (and are not limited to people of African descent in America), and are the result of a complex interaction of biology, genetics, environmental factors, and specific health behaviors. Minorities are far more likely to experience poverty and far less likely to have health insurance coverage.  Both of these factors decrease minority participation in the health care system, thus resulting in poorer health outcomes.   However, an important factor that affects minority health care participation, and that is often overlooked by health care providers, is the concept of cultural competency.   Cultural competency is an important tool for addressing health disparities and requires the development of innovative strategies to increase health awareness and behavioral changes in minority communities. 
Health care institutions can have a considerable impact on addressing health disparities by developing dedicated minority health initiatives at their centers to focus their academic resources, research initiatives, and clinical efforts on this crisis. 
               At this conference, Dr. Modlin, a Urologist and leading Kidney Transplant Surgeon, Director of the Cleveland Clinic Minority Men’s Health Center, an internationally recognized center designed to reduce health disparities in minority men, will lead a comprehensive discussion on the etiology of minority health disparities as well as discuss his successful and unique mechanisms  to reduce/ eliminate health disparities afflicting minority men—techniques which he believes can be applied to benefit men of African and Hispanic descent  internationally who are at high-risk for developing health disparities.