Contact UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities

The United States is the most technologically advanced country in the world, spending more resources on health care than any other nation, yet not all citizens have equal access to quality health care. For decades, health disparities in the US have been an ongoing public health challenge, especially for racial and ethnic minority populations. The Institute of Medicine’s landmark report, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care provides extensive evidence that racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to receive lower quality health services than white Americans. On average, racial and ethnic minorities are in poorer health, suffer worse health outcomes, and have higher morbidity and mortality rates than their white cohorts and underserved minority and low-income populations experience disproportionately high (but avoidable) rates of preventable disease and premature death across many conditions. Such disparities can result in severe medical, social and economic consequences including increased mortality.  It is in response to these inequities that the UC Davis Health established the Center for Reducing Health Disparities in 2005.