In This Issue

DREDF documents the
health disparities exhibited
by people with disabilities
from minority populations

Dear Friends,

In 2011, DREDF received a request from the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), and the office of Congresswoman Barbara Lee to help document disparities in health care that most minorities with disabilities experience.

Data was needed to support the federal Health Equity and Accountability Act (HEAA), HR 2954, introduced on September 15, 2011. HEAA was introduced by members of the Congressional Tri-Caucus (comprised of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus), to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities.

DREDF's brief, Health and Health Care Disparities Among People with Disabilities, correlates race/ethnicity and disability with specific health issues and describes environmental barriers to care. As its author, DREDF staff attorney Silvia Yee, states, "Aside from the public health issues that most racial/ethnic minorities face, minorities with disabilities experience additional disparities in health, prejudice, discrimination, economic barriers, and difficulties accessing care as a result of their disability—in effect, they face a 'double burden.'"

The documented health disparities include the following:

• Among adults with a disability, 55.2 percent of Hispanic persons, and 46.6 percent of African Americans, report fair or poor health, as compared with 36.9 percent of whites.[1]
• Diabetes is a rapidly growing health challenge among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have immigrated to the United States, affecting about 10 percent of Asian Americans, with 90-95 percent of these having type 2 diabetes.[2] Despite the high correlation between diabetes and vision loss, printed self-care and treatment instructions in alternative formats such as Braille, large font type, CD, oraudio recording, and accessible glucometers, are rarely available.
• African Americans with severe mental health disabilities are less likely than whites to access mental health services, more likely to drop out of treatment, more likely to receive poor-quality care, and more likely to be dissatisfied with care.[3] Asian Americans and Hispanics are less than half as likely as whites to receive mental health treatment.[4]
• People with significant vision loss experience a greater prevalence of obesity, hypertension and heart disease, and cigarette use than the general public.[5] People who are Hispanic have higher rates of visual impairments than people who are African American, and both groups have higher rates of vision impairment than people who are white.[6]
• Among people who are deaf, women of color appear to experience the greatest health disparities and difficulty accessing appropriate health care. They tend to have lower incomes and poorer health, and to be less educated compared with white women. Among women of color, African American Deaf women appear to experience the greatest health disadvantages.[7]

As the primary disability resource for the HEAA, DREDF provided critical information that filled a gap in the bill sponsors' data. DREDF's involvement in HEAA continues our longstanding history of working with allied advocates to address disability issues in the areas of education, civil rights, and health care.

DREDF will continue leading efforts to ensure informed and inclusive progressive public policy. We're committed to fulfilling the ACA's promise for improving people with disabilities' access to health care, and to advancing this key principle:

"It is vitally important to distinguish between disability as a natural part of the human condition, and disability-related health disparities that can lead to compromised care, ill health, institutionalization, and premature death. These are not consequences that inevitably follow the simple fact of impairment."

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[1] - Center for Disease Control Website, [Accessed July 14, 2011].

[2] - Asian American Diabetes Initiative, Joslin Diabetes Center, (2010).

[3] Whitley, R., & Lawson, W.. (2010). The Psychiatric Rehabilitation of African Americans With Severe Mental Illness. Psychiatric Services, 61(5), 508-11.

[4] - 2008 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Table 15_3_1.1a & 15_3_1.1b

[5] Michele Capella-McDonnall, "The Need for Health Promotion for Adults Who Are Visually Impaired," Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 101, no. 3 (March 2007).

[6] Id. Note that a vision impairment is a visual disability not correctable by glasses or other modifications.

[7] National Council on Disability, The Current State of Health Care for People with Disabilities, September 30, 2009.

© 2011

Resources

• Health and Health Care Disparities Among People with Disabilities
• Health Equity and Accountability Act (HEAA)
• HR 2954 Press Release
• DREDF and the Affordable Care Act

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