Massachusetts legislators' levels of awareness regarding health disparities: implications for public health policymaking.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20003103

As the population of the United States continues to become more diverse, the economic costs of health disparities threaten the nation's fiscal health. Using the Richmond-Kotelchuck model of health policymaking and aspects of John Kingdon's agenda setting model, this study recognizes the potential that legislators have to create policy or direct resources towards eliminating the disparities gap and seeks to more fully understand the various factors that may influence legislative awareness and knowledge of health disparities. Increasing understanding of the influences on legislative awareness and knowledge about health disparities is necessary and important to affect and shape policy actions towards narrowing the disparities gap. Interviews with Massachusetts legislators of the 187th General Court were conducted and statistical analyses of questions were conducted. Qualitative analysis of responses to open-ended questions reinforced the results of the quantitative analyses.