Society for Medical Anthropology

A section of the American Anthropological Association

Academic Resources: Topical Resources

  • Inequity & Health Disparities

research tools:

reading rooms & publications

  • Selected bibliography on social determinants of health, by Peter Montague, from Rachel's Democracy and Health News, February 18, 2006
  • Health Disparities & the Body Politic: A Series of International Symposia, published by the Harvard School of Public Health
  • A Widening Rift In Access And Quality: Growing Evidence Of Economic Disparities, by Robert E. Hurley, Hoangmai H. Pham, and Gary Claxton in Health Affairs: The Policy Journal of the Health Sphere, 2005. Data from the Community Tracking Study provide a valuable perspective from which to observe how economic disparities--largely a function of different sources of coverage--influence access to medical care in the United States. Many recent investments and initiatives are focused on affluent communities and are accessible mainly to people with employer-based or Medicare coverage. For people with Medicaid or no coverage at all, access to basic care is worsening, as a result of stalled coverage expansions and service cutbacks. An improving economy could forestall further cuts and permit reversal of earlier ones, but progress in closing this rift does not appear imminent.
  • 2005 National Healthcare Disparities Report: The 2005 National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR) tracks disparities in both quality of and access to health care in the United States for both the general population and for congressionally designated priority populations. The 2005 NHDR uses the same measures of quality as its companion National Healthcare Quality Report (NHQR) to monitor the Nation's annual progress toward eliminating disparities in health care. This year’s report focuses on the same group of 46 "core" measures of quality tracked in the NHQR; additionally, the NHDR includes 13 core measures of access to care. The report presents, in chart format, the latest available findings on quality of and access to health care in the general U.S. population and among priority populations. It focuses on four components of quality—effectiveness, patient safety, timeliness, and patient centeredness—and two components of access—facilitators and barriers to health care and health care utilization.
  • The Consequences of Medical Debt: Evidence from Three Communities (pdf)
    Published in March 2003 by The Access Project, the report demonstrates, through information collected directly from individuals with medical debt, the barriers to future health care caused by the debt that results from accessing needed care in the past. It also describes the many often ruinous financial effects that may befall individuals and families with medical debt.
  • Annotated Bibliography on Equity in Health, 1980-2001
    James A Macinko & Barbara Starfield, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, published in the International Journal for Equity in Health 2002, 1:1
  • Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
    The Septemer 2002 issue is a special issue devoted to tackling health inequalities. (Volume 30, Number 3 Supplement 59/September 03, 2002)
  • Health & Human Development in the New Global Economy: The Contributions and Perspectives of Civil Society in the Americas (pdf) (PAHO)
    This document addresses a wide range of issues affecting health in the global economy, including the types of economic organization and potential dangers we face at the close of this century. It centers on experiences, opportunities, and risks in the Americas, on health in human development, and on international and regional integration processes in the new global economy. Some articles analyze the impact of economic reform policies on health in general, and some monographs are written from the perspective of civil society groups in particular countries.
  • Featured Reports -- from the Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH)
    Journal of Rural and Remote Health

organizations

  • The Bank Information Center (BIC)
    BIC is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization that provides information and strategic support to NGOs and social movements throughout the world on the projects, policies and practices of the World Bank and other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs). BIC advocates for greater transparency, accountability and citizen participation at the MDBs.
  • Bretton Woods Project
    The Bretton Woods Project works as a networker, information-provider, media informant and watchdog to scrutinise and influence the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
  • The Center for Global Development
    The Center for Global Development is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to reducing global poverty and inequality through policy oriented research and active engagement on development issues with the policy community and the public.
  • The Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP)
    CROP is an international NGO initiated by the International Social Science Council (ISSC). CROP is organised around an extensive international and multi-disciplinary research network, which is open to all poverty researchers and others interested in a scientific approach to poverty.
  • Eldis World Bank and IMF Resource Guide
    ELDIS is a gateway to information on development issues, providing free and easy access to wide range of high quality online resources. The site provides summaries and links to online documents and offers a directory of websites, databases, library catalogues and email discussion lists.
  • Focus on the Global South
    Focus aims to consciously and consistently articulate, link and develop greater coherence between local community-based and national, regional and global paradigms of change. Focus on the Global South strives to create a distinct and cogent link between development at the grassroots and the "macro" levels.
  • The Global Development Network (GDN)
    GDB is a global network of research and policy institutes working together to address the problems of national and regional development. Since its launch in 1999, GDN has supported and linked policy research institutes from eleven regions and more than hundred countries.
  • The Rethinking Bretton Woods (RBW)
    The RBW project promotes reforms within the international financial institutions (IFIs) that enhance sustainable development. The RBW project engages US policymakers, NGOs, grassroots activists, and the public through education and advocacy. It works with partner organizations in the US, Europe, and the Global South.
  • Third World Network
    The Third World Network is an independent non-profit international network of organizations and individuals involved in issues relating to development, the Third World and North- South issues.
  • Transnational Institute
    The Transnational Institute was founded in 1974 as a worldwide fellowship of committed scholar-activists. It was one of the first research institutes established to be transnational in name, composition, orientation and focus.
  • International Society for Equity in Health
    The purpose for which ISEqH is formed is to promote equity in health and health services internationally through education, research, publication, communication and charitable support.

other resources