What is Institutionalized Racism and how does it Increase Health Disparities?
• What are the Health Disparity Variables? • What is Critical Thinking? • The Critical Thinking Checklist • Conclusions, and • References The Use of Critical Thinking Skills to Analyze Health Disparities Introduction Many may find it easy to use race or ethnicity to explain reproductive health disparities among teens. In fact, statistics can be and are used to support such claims. A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the total number of births per 1000 women aged 15 to 19 showed the following averages: • 81.1 for African American teens • 44.5 for Caucasian teens • 93.1 for Latina teens • 22.8 for Asian teens, and • 67.7 for Native American teens1 Although these and other statistics show disparities between racial/ethnic groups, inferring that health disparities are based on race is not only inaccurate but illogical. In order to use race as a risk factor for teen pregnancy, for example, increased teen pregnancy rates would need to be seen in people
