Infographics are a great way to begin a discussion about mechanisms of health disparities.

Conceptual model: Mechanisms of health disparities

This infographic illustrates multiple potential pathways leading from race and ethnicity to disparities in health outcomes, mechanisms of health disparities. Chapter 4 of “What Pharmacists Need to Know About Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities” explores mechanisms and explanations and provides students with tools for understanding this complex topic.

The visual can provoke thought, raise questions, and educate, all at the same time. The infographic suggests pathways, but doesn’t cover them all. The student can take this infographic, generate hypotheses, and explore relationships.

For example, a student might begin with the association between race and ethnicity and socio-economic status, and then follow the pathways leading through occupation, income, education or neighborhood, which then lead through variables such environmental exposures, ability to understand health information or health insurance coverage, and then to health outcomes.

Another set of pathways might begin with the association between race and ethnicity and culture and religion (another broad area, in itself). One can follow the pathways through behaviors such as diet, reproductive practices, attitudes towards medication, education and occupation, and lead to differences in risk factors and health outcomes.

Chapter 4 also explores direct effects of race or ethnicity on health – and discusses the landmark study “The effect of race and sex on physicians’ recommendations for cardiac catheterization” that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1999.

“What Pharmacists Need to Know About Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities” – a text tailored for pharmacy students.

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