Intersectionality and Health Disparities (10A) - MCAT Psychological and Social Foundations

Overlapping identities create unique, non-additive health risks. Multiple marginalized identities interact to produce compounded disadvantages.

A preventable difference in health linked to social disadvantage. Focuses on differences that could be eliminated through social change.

An unfair, avoidable health difference rooted in injustice. Emphasizes moral dimension and systemic causes vs. mere differences.

Equality gives same resources; equity allocates by need to equalize outcomes. Equity recognizes different starting points require different support.

Health improves stepwise with higher socioeconomic status. Each increase in income/education correlates with better health outcomes.

Institutional arrangements that systematically harm marginalized groups. Social structures inflict harm through unequal resource distribution.

Policies and institutions that produce racialized inequities in health. Discriminatory systems embedded in laws, policies, and practices.

Unequal treatment due to group membership (race, gender, class, etc.). Differential treatment based on social category membership.

Unconscious attitudes that can alter decisions and patient care. Automatic biases influence clinical judgment without awareness.

Anxiety about confirming stereotypes that impairs performance or communication. Fear of confirming negative stereotypes creates stress and barriers.

Low trust in health systems, often due to historical and ongoing mistreatment. Past abuses and current discrimination erode patient confidence.

Chronic stress accelerates physiological wear in marginalized groups. Discrimination causes premature biological aging through stress pathways.

Cumulative physiological burden from repeated or chronic stress. Stress hormones and inflammation accumulate, damaging body systems.

Health reflects interacting biological, psychological, and social factors. Integrates multiple levels of analysis to understand health outcomes.

Access is ability to obtain services; quality is effectiveness and safety. Access means getting care; quality means receiving appropriate care.

Structural factors (for example, racism) beyond individual SES. Shows health gaps stem from systemic inequities, not just poverty.

Anticipated stigma. Expecting discrimination prevents seeking needed health services.

Implicit bias affecting care delivery. Unconscious stereotypes shape provider behavior and patient interactions.

Mediation model: race → discrimination → hypertension. Tests if discrimination explains how race affects health outcomes.

Non-additive (interaction) effects consistent with intersectionality. Intersecting identities create unique vulnerabilities beyond simple addition.

Unfair, unjust disparities caused by social and structural conditions. Disparities rooted in injustice, not just biological variation.

Other mechanisms (discrimination, environment, care quality) likely contribute. SES doesn't capture all pathways creating disparities.

Stratify by combined identities (e.g., race × gender) rather than single categories. Examines how identity combinations create distinct outcomes.

Policies/practices that produce unequal care across groups, independent of intent. Systemic patterns create disparities regardless of individual bias.

Adopting negative beliefs about one’s group; worsens stress and health behaviors. Self-stigma creates stress and unhealthy coping behaviors.

Intersectionality emphasizes nonadditive, interacting effects of identities. Identities interact synergistically, not just sum together.

Direct biased treatment by individuals that can impair health and care access. Face-to-face bias affects treatment quality and access.

Cumulative wear-and-tear from chronic stress on multiple body systems. Chronic stress causes measurable physiological damage.

Accelerated health decline from chronic exposure to social adversity. Continuous stress exposure ages bodies prematurely.