Health Disparities

In support of its commitment to fighting health inequities, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing has launched an ambitious campaign to raise and match $1 million to support health disparity research. Dean Pamela Jeffries recently announced the school’s Nursing Health Equity Fellowship program, setting aside $1 million for health equity research at the school and asking VUSN supporters to make a 1:1 philanthropic match to fund this critical research. Read More

Higher dietary intake of antioxidant compounds found in fruits, vegetables, teas and spices was associated with lower risk of colorectal cancer, and intake was lower among Black participants, potentially contributing to colorectal cancer health disparities. Read More

Sharon Jones, assistant professor of nursing, and David G. Schlundt, associate professor of psychology, are participating in a collaborative research project to address health disparities and advance health equity in Nashville. Read More

Vanderbilt epidemiologists conducted in-depth whole genome sequencing of breast cancer risk genes in Black women, who die at higher rates and have more aggressive disease, to discover mutations that may improve testing and treatment selection. Read More

Hospital data from a CDC network that monitors influenza revealed that adults hospitalized for COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic were 20x more likely to die compared to hospitalized influenza patients. Read More

Hispanic and Latinx people are three times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19 than white people. Black people are 2.8 times more likely to be hospitalized. A key reason: health inequities. As health professionals and advocates, nurses can improve equities, says Antonia M. Villarruel, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing... Read More

Racial disparities in hypertension risk are due in part to genetic differences between ancestries, Vanderbilt investigators find in a study of participants in the Million Veteran Program. Read More

Unique somatic gene mutations may contribute to racial disparities in the incidence of Wilms tumor — the most common childhood kidney cancer. Read More

Men’s health across Tennessee is trending toward improvement, according to the 2020 Tennessee Men’s Health Report Card, but racial and geographic disparities persist. The report card is compiled by Vanderbilt’s Center for Research on Men’s Health in cooperation with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the Tennessee Department of Health, Meharry Medical College and the Tennessee Men’s Health Network. Read More

Dr. André Churchwell, vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at VU and VUMC, and former Sen. Bill Frist, founder of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center, write about the importance of addressing health equity and health disparities in Nashville communities in this opinion piece. Read More

More than 600 attendees from across the Southeast participated in a June 24 webinar on COVID-19 health disparities hosted by Vanderbilt and presented by the chief diversity officers of universities in the Southeastern Conference. Read More

Chief diversity officers from across the Southeastern Conference will offer a webinar on Wednesday, June 24, exploring the intersection of race and the COVID-19 health crisis. The Vanderbilt-hosted webinar is free and open to the public. Read More

Variation in the levels of hormones called natriuretic peptides may contribute to racial differences in susceptibility to diabetes, suggesting that this hormone system may be a target for reducing risk of the disease. Read More

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines that determine which smokers qualify for CT scans are excluding significant numbers of African Americans who develop lung cancer, a health disparity that merits modifications to lung cancer screening criteria, according to a study from Vanderbilt researchers. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have received a two-year, $250,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to develop a new way to measure trust in African American men as it relates to health care. Read More

One of the first studies to examine the health impacts of legal marriage for LGBT individuals has found gay men were more likely to receive routine medical care following marriage legalization. Read More

Boys and men of color or who identify as LGBTQI experience higher rates of trauma, substance use, depression and violence, and that worsens their overall health, according to a new report coauthored by Derek Griffith, who is part of the American Psychological Association’s Working Group on Health Disparities in Boys and Men. Read More

New research by Vanderbilt nephrologists highlights potential barriers that may prevent black Americans from being screened for kidney disease. Read More

There's good and bad news in the new Tennessee Men's Health Report Card. Read More

A trans-institutional team of Vanderbilt social scientists and medical professionals will look at how laws affecting LGBT individuals and families affect their health and the economy. Read More