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**14**

**Chapter 2**

*Ganga Bey*

**Abstract**

**1. Introduction**

**17**

Health Disparities at the

Epidemiologic Research

beyond current understandings of Intersectionality Theory.

pathology, social group identity, social determinants of health

**1.1 Brief overview of health disparities research in the United States**

ical determinism framework [5]. Because of this narrow theoretical scope,

Intersection of Gender and Race:

Beyond Intersectionality Theory in

Racial disparities in health have long been one of the primary foci of health inequity research in the United States, yet the use of theoretical frameworks outside of biological determinism has generally been minimal within this literature. Only recently has epidemiology begun to incorporate Intersectionality and other social theories in the study of racial health inequities. Even still, the majority of this research base neglects to engage deeply the theoretical complexity that such frameworks demand, often leaving unanswered the important question of whether and why any observed race effects vary across other social group categories. The limited body of epidemiologic work grounded in Intersectionality Theory indicates that race can be further divided into meaningfully disparate categories with important implications for accurately assessing health and health disparities. Yet, Intersectionality Theory, as it is frequently applied, is only one lens with which to appraise disparate health outcomes at these social junctures. This chapter provides an overview of current evidence for racial differences in health, which vary across gender, building support for the necessity of wholistic identity approaches that move

**Keywords:** Intersectionality Theory, health disparities, gender and race, identity

Throughout the history of the United States, disparities in health outcomes between racial groups and individuals of differing ethnic backgrounds have been well documented [1, 2]. Consistently, black and Indigenous persons, and those of Hispanic ethnicity have had poorer overall health, higher rates of both chronic and infectious disease, and increased risk of mortality compared with persons of European ancestry [1–4]. For decades, investigations into the causes of these unequal health outcomes largely operated under an implicit—and at times explicit—biolog-
