The environments where we live, learn, work, play, and pray shape our day-to-day lives and long-term health and well-being in complex ways. Dr. Anthony Iton, Senior Vice President for Healthy Communities at the California Endowment, famously said “tell me your zip code and I’ll tell you your life expectancy.”
If you are interested in understanding how these social and structural factors affect the health and well-being of racial and ethnic minorities and other vulnerable populations in the United States, then register for this summer’s Racial/Ethnic and Gender Inequalities in Health and Health Care course!
This Summer School course addresses the following inequity concerns and how they relate to health:
- In New Orleans, the life expectancy of residents from the poorest zip code in the city is 26 years lower than for residents of the wealthiest zip code.
- The median net worth for Black Bostonians is $8.00 compared to
White median net worth of $247,500.00.
- In 2015, women working full-time earned 80% of what men
working full-time earned, and if trends continue, white women will have to wait until 2056 to see equal work for equal pay.
- Hispanic women will have to wait 232 years for the pay gap to close without active policy intervention.
This course will also review and critique key theoretical frameworks and evidence from public health, social policy, and community development that demonstrate how social and structural factors influence health and well-being, and how these same factors drive health disparities and inequities.
Each week, a case study of a health equity 2 policy, practice, or initiative will be analyzed, and the opportunities and challenges presented by the case will be discussed.
This course also prepares students interested in a wide range of disciplines to understand and advance health and equity in their future careers by achieving the following course outcomes:
- Define key terms and constructs related to health disparities and health equity.
- Identify patterns of inequities in health status by race, ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status from an epidemiological perspective.
- Explain how systems, policies, and ideologies contribute to disparities in rates of illness, quality of life, premature death, mental health, and population-level health inequities.
- Identify and critique current theories for racial/ethnic disparities in health status, access and quality.
- Become familiar with and critically assess conceptual models,
policies, initiatives, and strategies for reducing and/or eliminating
health disparities.
Course Details:
HSSP 114B: Racial/Ethnic and Gender Inequalities in Health and Health Care
With Jessica Santos, Ph.D.
Summer Session 2: July 8 to August 9, 2019
Meets Mondays, Tuesday, and Thursdays
View the Full Syllabus here.
Questions?
Email us at summerschool@brandeis.edu
