Table 1.

Working definition of key concepts.

Concept	Definition	Reference
Health disparity	A population where there is a significant disparity in the overall rate of disease incidence, prevalence, morbidity, mortality, or survival rates in the population as compared to the health status of the general population	Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). 2012 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Rockville MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), AHRQ Publication No. 13–003, May 2013, http://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/nhqrdr/nhdr12/nhdr12_prov.pdf.
Health care disparity	Racial or ethnic differences in the quality of health care that are not due to access-related factors or clinical needs, preferences, and appropriateness of intervention	Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). 2012 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Rockville MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), AHRQ Publication No. 13–003, May 2013, http://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/nhqrdr/nhdr12/nhdr12_prov.pdf.
Ethnicity	Customs, language, behaviors, music, literature, heroes, values, and worldview that a group with a common ethnic heritage shares	Pasick et al, 1994
Culture	Highly variable systems of meanings, which are learned and shared by a people or an identifiable segment of a population	Rohner, 1984
Cultural competence	The capacity of individuals to exercise interpersonal cultural sensitivity	Marin et al, 1995