How does CHERP approach disparities research?
Most health and health care disparities research falls into three generations. The first generation of health disparities research consists of research that identifies and documents health and health care disparities. The enduring lesson of first generation research is that if you look for disparities in health or in health care, you can find them everywhere. Second generation research digs a little deeper and explores the root causes of health and health care disparities. Second generation research has revealed that complete answers will be invariably complex, most likely involving combinations of a number of factors including, but not limited to, individual behavior and biology, the social and physical environment, the health care system, and public policy. Understanding the underlying causes of disparities will lead to the third generation of research. Third generation research aims to develop and test interventions to reduce disparities and, in so doing, improve the health of all.
