What to know
- CDC's Office of Minority Health (OMH) promotes public health research, evidence-based programs, policies, and strategies to improve the health and well-being of people in racial and ethnic minority groups. OMH is part of CDC's Office of Health Equity organizational structure.
Overview
OMH is committed to bringing together partners from various sectors to gain collective expertise, inform next steps, and create a shared commitment to improve health and reduce racial and ethnic health disparities.
Health disparities
According to the 2018 U.S. Census report, the year 2030 marks a demographic turning point for the United States. The nation’s population is projected to age considerably and become more racially and ethnically diverse.
Health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by populations that have been disadvantaged by their social or economic status, geographic location, and environment. Many populations experience health disparities, including people from some racial and ethnic minority groups, people with disabilities, women, people who are LGBTQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, or other), people with limited English proficiency, and other groups.
What CDC is doing
At CDC, we are committed to ensuring every person has the opportunity to live a healthy life. Data show that people in racial and ethnic minority groups, throughout the United States, experience higher rates of illness and death across a wide range of health conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, obesity, asthma, and heart disease, as well as average life expectancy, when compared to their White counterparts. A growing body of research shows that centuries of racism in this country has had a profound and negative impact on communities of color. CDC has established a "Racism and Health" website to serve as a hub for our activities, promote a public discourse on how racism negatively affects health and communicate potential solutions. Working with the broader public health community, we will serve as a catalyst to further investigate the impact of racism on health and efforts to achieve health equity for all.
In 2021, CDC launched CORE as an agency-wide initiative that challenges CDC centers to incorporate health equity and efforts to address health disparities as a foundational element across all our work – from science and research to programs, and from partnerships to workforce.