Contribution of Major Diseases to Disparities in Mortality

[Stephen Bezruchka]

Another way to look at it, that also supports a hierarchy and power
differential perspective.  STephen  (Martin and I were interns together in
Montreal in the 1970s, and wrote a section in the McGill college daily on
the influence of the drug companies back then)

Contribution of Major Diseases to Disparities in Mortality

Mitchell D. Wong, M.D., Ph.D., Martin F. Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D., W. John
Boscardin, Ph.D.,
and Susan L. Ettner, Ph.D.
Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services - University of
California at Los Angeles, CA, USA
N Engl J Med 2002; 347: Number 20 Volume 347:1585-1592 - November 14, 2002

Website: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/347/20/1585
<http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/347/20/1585>

"...............Although many conditions contribute to socioeconomic and
racial disparities in potential life-years lost, a few conditions account
for most of these disparities - smoking-related diseases in the case of
mortality among persons with fewer years of education, and hypertension,
HIV, diabetes mellitus, and trauma in the case of mortality among black
persons. These findings have important implications for targeting efforts to
reduce existing disparities in mortality rates..............."