[1] In the study of race and health, scientists organize people in racial categories depending on different factors such as: phenotype, ancestry, social identity, genetic makeup and lived experience.

[6] Overall, racial health disparities appear to be rooted in social disadvantages associated with race such as implicit stereotyping and average differences in socioeconomic status.

[10] According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they are intrinsically related to the "historical and current unequal distribution of social, political, economic and environmental resources".

[19] In the United States, the mental health of African Americans has been shown to be negatively impacted by systemic racism, contributing to increased risk of mortality from substance use disorders.

It encompasses interconnected systems such as housing, healthcare, education, employment, and criminal justice that perpetuate racial discrimination and the unequal distribution of resources.

For instance, housing discrimination and limited access to quality healthcare facilities in predominantly Black neighborhoods create barriers to effective care.

These inequities, coupled with racially biased medical practices, result in higher rates of chronic diseases, greater mortality, and poorer health outcomes among African Americans.

[21] Macias-Konstantopoulos et al. (2023) highlight how these factors disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), leading to significant health-care inequities.

Systemic imbalances, rather than genetic differences, create longer wait times for Black patients in emergency departments and less effective pain management compared to their white counterparts.

[citation needed] The study also emphasizes actionable steps for addressing these inequities, including fostering culturally sensitive practices and enhancing access to quality care for minority communities.

The most common major chronic biases of youth in the United States are asthma, diabetes mellitus, obesity, hypertension, dental disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), mental illness, cancers and others.

This results in Black and Latin adult patients facing a disproportionate amount of health concerns, such as asthma, with treatment and management guidelines not developed with studies based on their populations and healthcare needs.

One must consider these external factors when evaluating statistics on the prevalence of disease in populations, even though genetic components can play a role in predispositions to contracting some illnesses.

[citation needed] Similarly, there are growing numbers of resource and research centers which are seeking to provide this service for other national settings, such as Multicultural Mental Health Australia.

[63] Similarly, sexual orientation-based discrimination in healthcare has been shown to negatively impact health behaviors and outcomes, as demonstrated in a scoping review by Gioia and Rosenberger.

These findings underscore that healthcare biases extend beyond race, encompassing sexual orientation and gender as significant factors influencing treatment outcomes.

For example, a study by Turan et al. (2017)[67] demonstrated that perceived discrimination in healthcare settings negatively affected adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) among HIV-positive individuals.

This was mediated by stigma and depressive symptoms, emphasizing the need for culturally competent care and efforts to address racism in healthcare to improve outcomes.

Research conducted by medical departments at universities in San Diego, Miami, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina suggested that minorities in regions where lower socioeconomic status is common, there was a direct relationship with unhealthy diets and greater distance of supermarkets.

Their work highlights the ongoing inequalities in preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic healthcare services for minority groups compared to white individuals, which contribute significantly to higher morbidity and mortality rates among these populations.

These approaches align with interdisciplinary methods by combining cultural, economic, and social considerations to create actionable strategies that can be integrated into clinical practice.

Interdisciplinarity involves researchers, students, and teachers in the goals of connecting and integrating several academic schools of thought, professions, or technologies—along with their specific perspectives—in the pursuit of a common task.

The salt sensitivity hypothesis is an example of implementing biocultural approaches in order to understand cardiovascular health disparities among African American populations.

One the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which resulted in massive death totals of Africans who were forced over, those who survived and made to the United States were more likely able to withstand the harsh conditions because they retained salt and water better.

[96] The discovery that more diseases than previously thought correlate with racial identification have further sparked the interest in using race as a proxy for bio-geographical ancestry and genetic buildup.

[101] David Williams (1994) argued, after an examination of articles in the journal Health Services Research during the 1966–90 period, that how race was determined and defined was seldom described.

[54] Some doctors and scientists such as geneticist Neil Risch argue that using self-identified race as a proxy for ancestry is necessary to be able to get a sufficiently broad sample of different ancestral populations, and in turn to be able to provide health care that is tailored to the needs of minority groups.

However, applying an equation developed from White populations to other racial groups may lead to overdiagnosis and limited eligibility for treatment due to the increased perception of risk.

[123][122] These race-based clinical decision support tools, such as pulmonary function testing with spirometry, were ended by a report published by the US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee in October 2021.

[126] Many studies assert that these factors explain portions of the existing disparities in health of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States when compared to their white counterparts.