Peterson-Kaiser health system tracker
Data comparing US social determinants of health with other countries. Data as of February 2016.
Rural Health Information Hub
The federal government’s Rural Health Information Hub serves as an information portal on rural health and related services. Funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy to be a national clearinghouse on rural health issues, the site offers on online library, state-by-state information and other data. It also hosts a special section on the social determinants of health.
CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report — United States, 2013
This the second CDC report to address a multitude of differences in mortality and disease risk related to behaviors, access to health care, and social determinants of health – the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work. The topics table lists the issues studied in the report and provides links to data and information about the ongoing work on health disparities across the agency. Download a PDF of the report or get the 2011 version.
Overcoming Obstacles to Health in 2013 and Beyond
RWJF Commission to Build a Healthier America. (2013)
Poor, middle-class and even wealthy Americans are less healthy than their counterparts in other affluent countries. The authors analyze the existing research to explain why Americans are not as healthy as they could be, and suggests evidence-based solutions.
Estimated deaths attributable to social factors in the United States
Sandro Galea, M.D., Dr.P.H.; Melissa Tracy, M.P.H.; Katherine J. Hoggatt, Ph.D.; Charles DiMaggio, Ph.D.; and Adam Karpati, M.D., M.P.H.; American Journal of Public Health (2011)
About 245,000 deaths in the United States in 2000 were attributable to low education, 176,000 to racial segregation, 162,000 to low social support, 133,000 to individual-level poverty, 119,000 to income inequality and 39,000 to area-level poverty.
The Gap Gets Bigger: Changes In Mortality And Life Expectancy, By Education, 1981-2000
E. R. Meara; Health Affairs (2008)
Since 1980, life expectancy has changed very little among the less-educated and virtually all gains in life expectancy occurred among highly educated groups.
Life and death from unnatural causes: health and social inequity in Alameda County
Alameda County Department of Health, Oakland, Calif. (2008)
Documents the health disparities in Alameda County by neighborhood, income level, and race/ethnicity; examines the links between these disparities and existing economic and social inequities; and suggests policies to reduce inequalities.
The Fall and Rise of US Inequities in Premature Mortality: 1960–2002
Nancy Krieger, David H. Rehkopf, Jarvis T. Chen, Pamela D. Waterman, Enrico Marcelli, Malinda Kennedy; PLoS Medicine (2008)
Between 1960 and 2002, U.S. infant death rates and premature mortality fell among county populations across income levels, and socioeconomic and racial/ethnic inequities shrank between 1966 and 1980. But since 1980, the relative health inequities have grown wider. Had all persons experienced the same yearly age-specific premature mortality rates as the highest income one-fifth of the white population, between 1960 and 2002, 14 percent of the white premature deaths and 30 percent of the premature deaths among populations of color would not have occurred.
Falling behind: life expectancy in US counties from 2000 to 2007 in an international context
Sandeep Kulkarni, Alison Levin-Rector, Majid Ezzati and Christopher Murray, Population Health Metrics (2011)
A revealing county-level analysis of health inequalities in the U.S. The authors’ maps show the parts of the U.S. where life expectancy lags behind the best performing nations by about 50 years, i.e., it’s equivalent to life expectancies during the 1960s in other wealthy countries. “The extent of geographic inequality is substantially larger in the US than in the UK, Canada, or Japan. Equally concerning is that between 2000 and 2007, more than 85% of American counties have fallen further behind the international life expectancy frontier…”
Healthy People 2020: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health
The U.S. government’s Healthy People 2020 (HP2020) project includes a new section on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender health. The project includes an overview of LGBT health issues and statistics as well as links to other resources and related U.S. government initiatives. It also provides an update of HP2020’s goal to collect health data on LGBT populations.