Health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations.

Heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death across race, ethnicity, and gender (see Table 2-1). African Americans were 30 percent more likely than whites to die prematurely from heart disease in 2010, and African American men are twice as likely as whites to die prematurely from stroke (HHS, 2016b,d).

Social determinants of health like poverty, unequal access to health care, lack of education, stigma, and racism are linked to health disparities.

For example, African American/Black women and Latinas experience lower survival rates from triple-negative breast cancer than White women with the same disease-even with similar access to care, screening mammography, and insurance coverage-due to the lack of specialized screening and lack of viable treatment options ...