ABSTRACT
In the effort to not only promote health equity but also to address health disparities in the United States, an imperative point is to identify and examine the various methods in which health disparities are created and maintained (Griffith, Metzl, & Gunter, 2011). Despite the number of policies written and the measures taken to address health disparities, there still remains a health gap between women and men in the United States. Men in the United States have higher rates for the leading causes of death and a shorter life expectancy, and they are more likely to suffer from severe chronic conditions and fatal diseases than women (Courtenay, 2000a). A variety of factors such as race, ethnicity, age, sexual identity and orientation, disability status, and geography are all critical determinants of men’s health and health disparities. Although all of these individual-level factors are associated with and influence men’s health, they do not account for the health disparities that exist when both gender and race are taken into account. Of particular concern are African American young adult men who continue to experience a disproportionate number of health disparities compared to their counterparts (Powell, Matthews, Mohottige, Agyemang, & Corbie-Smith, 2010). Considering the many poor health outcomes and health disparities that African American young adult men are challenged with, relative to others their age, it is important to examine their health status and disparities to highlight the important implications for themselves and their counterparts.
