Occupational Health Disparities among Racial and Ethnic Minorities: Lessons from Diverse Research Frameworks

The current paper aims to advance research on occupational health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities. We review the historical context and development of the field of occupational health disparities, and review a diverse set of national research frameworks. Our work is based on the Diversified Portfolio Model (DPM) of adaptability (Chandra and Leong 2016) which maintains that diversification promotes greater adaptability. Since diversification bestows adaptive advantages in multiple arenas of human endeavor, we proposed that an analysis of diverse theoretical models for studying occupational health disparities would also benefit the field of Occupational Health Science. The theoretical frameworks reviewed include: (a) The National Institute of Aging’s (NIA) health disparities framework, (b) An Epidemiological Framework, (c) The Transformation for Health Framework, and (d) The Cultural Adaptations Framework. We summarize lessons and highlight the need for incorporating change perspectives, prevention-oriented approaches, and mixed-methods approaches to address occupational health disparities.