NYC Jews live in poverty, who knew…

Poverty affects all people in the United States.  In New York City there are over 250,000 Jews living at or below the poverty line, who knew.  I lived at or below the poverty line for over 20 years, who knew that either.

If you are into numbers and government definitions you can find poverty data at the U.S. Census Poverty web site.  Or you can try the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan.  If you live on the west coast like I do you might look at the West Coast Poverty Center.  Web sites about poverty are easy to find.  Solutions are not.

Most people who live at the poverty line or below it are subject to health disparities.  People who are not Euro-American and live at or under the poverty line are usually subject to greater health disparities.

Health Disparities Population Groups in Medline Plus

Caveat: I use and promote the web site Medline Plus almost every day and believe that it is an amazing, free (paid for by our tax dollars) health resource. Even so, I find myself wincing when the issue of health disparities comes up.

Originally the Medline Plus Population Groups web page contained health information about the National Institutes of Health (NIH) designated health disparities “minority groups”, Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Wait a second.

Where is the NIH designated health disparities Appalachian region of the United States in this picture? It isn’t. * The Appalachian folks are NO WHERE to be found, unless I couldn’t see them buried deep in the web site. One must ask (or at least I must) is it a stigma to be designated as a person in an NIH health disparities “minority group”? If so, is that why Euro-Americans (whites) don’t show up? Except of course, as a buried aside.

* (The NIH description of designated health disparities groups in the United States goes something like this: “Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders and the medically underserved, i.e., individuals from the Appalachian region, have been designated as health disparity populations.”) www.nidcr.nih.gov/CareersAndTraining/LoanRepayment/NIHLoanRepaymentPrograms/

Also note that the groups, Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, are huge concepts and each concept can contain many ethnic or tribal groups. Medline Plus only does a gloss for each huge concept and is a primer when you need basic information fast, except of course for the missing “you know who region”.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/populationgroups.html

Welcome to Ethnic Difference

Ethnic Difference has a focus on information about health care for all ethnic groups. We will rarely use the word “race” here except to pan it as it should be. More to come!!