Health Disparities in Rehabilitation—Practice/Research Focus

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Abstract
The 2001 National Academy of Medicine (previously the Institute of Medicine) report Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century listed health equity as one of 6 pillars in delivering high-quality health care. 1 In 2003, the Academy published Unequal Treatment, detailing how health disparities arise in health care and what systems can do to reduce disparities through financing, service innovation, language accessibility, training in cultural humility, and community-centered partnerships. 2 The pervasive disparities and unrelenting social injustices outlined in these reports persist 20 years later, and, in many cases, have worsened in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health disparities are defined as systematic and avoidable differences in health that adversely affect groups that have been historically marginalized (characteristics include race, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status [income, wealth, education, or occupation], sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability). 3 In alignment with the National Academy of Medicine reports cited above, the American Physical Therapy Association calls upon its members to “recognize health disparities and work to ameliorate them” through advocacy, community-engaged practice, service innovation, and attention to social and structural drivers of health. 4 Where our work becomes challenging is in translating what we know about the nature of health disparities into meaningful and actionable change.

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