Including comprehensive coverage of health disparities commonly encountered in pediatric and adult pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine, Achieving Respiratory Health Equality in the United States provides a definitive reference on this prominent issue. Expert authors explore questions such as: * What is the evidence that respiratory health disparities exist? * What do we know about the causes of the disparities? * What are the clinical implications? * What can be done to address the particular disparities and thus achieve health equality? Recognizing the magnitude of this problem, the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Executive Committee created a Health Equality Sub-Committee, with an initial mandate of defining respiratory health disparities and respiratory health equality in the United States. This book will follow the format of a workshop on respiratory health equality held before the 2015 ATS International Meeting and led by editor Juan Carlos Celedón. Written by the workshop presenters, this book focuses closely on major risk factors for health, specific respiratory diseases for which health disparities are known to occur, and potential approaches to eliminate such disparities. Achieving Respiratory Health Equality in the United States is a timely resource for researchers, clinicians, and public health practitioners in respiratory medicine.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

This book discusses health disparities in respiratory medicine and suggests methods to reduce them. In the United States, health disparities are well documented in the care of patients with respiratory disorders, particularly among minorities who often have higher rates of disease and poorer health outcomes. Similarly, differences in health and health outcomes exist between differing socioeconomic groups, with lower income groups generally having poorer health and higher rates of chronic illness. Health Disparities in Respiratory Medicine investigates these differing outcomes through the complex connections between access and quality of treatment available to these groups. Chapters are organized around either causes, diseases, or types of care, including tobacco smoke exposure, environmental air quality, acute respiratory distress syndrome, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and end-of-life care. This volume is an ideal resource for pulmonologists, health care administrators, and policy makers who aim to understand disparities in respiratory medicine and take steps to improve the differences among groups.

"The Handbook on health inequality monitoring: with a special focus on low- and middle-income countries is a resource that enables countries to do just that. It presents a comprehensive yet clear overview of health inequality monitoring in a user-friendly manner. The handbook succeeds in giving those involved in health inequality monitoring an appreciation of the complexities of the process, as well as building the practical knowledge and skills for systematic monitoring of health inequalities in low- and middle-income countries. The use of the handbook will enable countries to better monitor and evaluate their progress and performance with a high degree of accountability and transparency, and allow them to use the results to formulate evidenced-based policies, programmes and practices to tackle inequalities in an effective manner."--Publisher's description.

Health inequalities have long been deeply engrained in society. If we are to address these inequalities, we need to reflect on what has driven them, and critically review the approaches that do and do not work. This Monograph brings together leading experts and up-and-coming researchers, in a collection of state-of-the-art articles, discussing the drivers and consequences of respiratory inequality.

Social justice is a matter of life and death. It affects the way people live, their consequent chance of illness, and their risk of premature death. We watch in wonder as life expectancy and good health continue to increase in parts of the world and in alarm as they fail to improve in others.