The Office of Minority Health provides the most current quantitative information related to minority health. This includes sourcing and maintaining a body of expert knowledge on minority health status initiatives, and demographic statistics and analyses on minority populations, compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics, the Census Bureau, private foundations, clinical practitioners, private data sources and public agencies.
Division of Policy and Data
The Division of Policy and Data (DPD) is responsible for developing health policies and initiatives that are designed to address the elimination of health disparities and advance health equity.
DPD leads OMH's development, implementation and coordination of strategic plans; special initiatives; policy studies and evaluations; and statistical and data policy and analyses to improve data availability and quality for minority populations including African-American; Latino; American Indian and Alaska Native; Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander; and immigrant communities.
DPD's work is accomplished through:
- Implementation of strategic plans, such as the HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
- Coordination of special initiatives, including Healthy People 2020, the White House Initiatives on Minority-Serving Institutions and Educational Excellence, Promotores de Salud, Walgreens Co-sponsorship and American Diabetes Association Amputation Prevention partnership, among other initiatives
- Policy guidance to Task Forces and Interagency Work Groups, including the Advisory Committee on Minority Health, HHS Health Disparities Council, HHS agency Offices of Minority Health, the National Healthcare Disparities Report Interagency Workgroup, and the HHS Workgroup on Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Health Issues.
- Conducting policy, program, statistical and data reviews and analyses; and making recommendations on issues and conditions that impact racial and ethnic minority populations, such as promotion of the HHS Data Collection Standards for Race, Ethnicity, Primary Language, Sex, and Disability Status required by Section 4302 of the Affordable Care Act, and co-sponsorship with CDC's National Center for Health Statistics of a feasibility study to address gaps in health data for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) populations
- Coordination and development of reports, policy and research briefs, and peer reviewed articles; as well as leading and managing strategic planning, performance improvement, and program monitoring, tracking, and evaluation activities, such as the evaluation of the National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards in Health and Health Care guidelines
Health Profiles by Population
This section provides an overview of demographics, language fluency (where relevant), education, economics, insurance coverage, health and full census reports for racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States.Profile: African American Health
Profile: American Indian/Alaska Native Health
Profile: Asian American Health
Profile: Hispanic/Latino Health
Profile: Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Health
More Resources
CDC Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders Survey
Compendium of Federal Datasets Addressing Health Disparities
The Compendium of Federal Datasets Addressing Health Disparities is a free resource of publicly available data relevant to research and programs aiming to reduce health disparities by exploring the relationship between socioeconomic factors and the social determinants of health. The Compendium, an initiative of the Interdepartmental Health Equity Collaborative (IHEC), includes data and data-related resources from various federal agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
