The National Center for Health Statistics’ 2022 data reveals persistent racial and geographic disparities in US birth outcomes, despite policy efforts to address these inequities. The data, reflecting the aftermath of the first three COVID-19 waves, shows that maternal and infant mortality rates remain highest among Black individuals, approximately 2.5 times higher than non-Hispanic Whites. Black individuals were also 18% more likely to give birth by cesarean in 2022.The data also highlights stark differences across states. For instance, Arkansas and Wisconsin reported the highest infant mortality rates for non-Hispanic White and Black infants respectively, more than double the rates in…
Author: Disparity Matters
A large-scale study from Northern California’s health care system reveals significant racial and ethnic disparities in psychotic disorder diagnoses, with implications for mental and physical health outcomes. The retrospective chart review, which included nearly 6 million patient records, found that certain groups face a higher risk of developing psychotic disorders, leading to poorer health and increased mortality.The research, conducted by a team at a prominent Northern California health care institution, examined demographic characteristics and medical diagnoses, uncovering a disproportionate impact on specific racial and ethnic populations. These findings point to the need for tailored care and prevention strategies to address…
Increasing climate change events have placed insurmountable challenges on farmworkers and the exposure and risks due to climate change are not distributed equally, impacting farmworkers more than other populations. Through their own voices and digital stories, seven farmworkers in Ventura County, CA documented the health challenges they experience as a result of working in the fields during climate events.These powerful and heartfelt stories bear testament to the daily reality that often goes unseen by society and document the growing and urgent need to advance health equity and climate justice. They also help to ensure that indigenous populations are included in…
Every day, more than 20 million kids ride to school on the 450,000 or so buses that wind through cities and towns across the country. More than 90 percent of those vehicles run on diesel fuel, which emits harmful pollutants like fine particulates, ozone-forming substances like nitrogen oxide, and cancer-causing chemicals like benzene. Diesel pollutants burrow into the lungs, causing inflammation, asthma, and a host of other respiratory illnesses. Children are especially impacted because their respiratory systems are still developing, said Anne Kelsey Lamb, director of the Regional Asthma Management and Prevention Program at the Public Health Institute. Kids also…
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a decrease in asthma attacks and emergency department (ED) visits among Black adults and children in the United States, narrowing long-standing racial disparities. Asthma prevalence rose from 8% to 8.7% between 2019 and 2022, but asthma attacks among Black adults fell from 29.3% to 22.1%. Overall ED visit rates also dropped from 17.3% to 12.1%. These findings were published in a letter in the Annals of Internal Medicine by Adam Gaffney, MD, MPH, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance, and his team. The researchers suggest that these decreased disparities during the pandemic…
Despite ongoing concerns about overuse of cesarean deliveries in the United States, new data reveals troubling disparities in low-risk cesarean rates across racial and ethnic groups. A low-risk cesarean occurs when a single infant is delivered head-first at full-term to a first-time mother—situations where vaginal birth would typically be safest.From 2016 to 2022, the overall low-risk cesarean rate remained essentially unchanged at around 26 percent. However, significant differences emerged among racial groups. Black non-Hispanic women consistently experienced the highest rates, reaching 30.8 percent in 2022. Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander women saw their rate climb from 26.1 percent in…
Across the United States, falls are the leading cause of injury and injury death for adults ages 65 and older, affecting millions annually. The latest CDC report shows notable disparities by race and ethnicity. Nonfatal and fatal fall rates are highest for non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native seniors, while Asian and Black older adults report significantly lower percentages. Nationally, 27.6% of older adults had at least one fall in 2020 and 78 per 100,000 died in 2021, but among Whites and American Indians/Alaska Natives, rates reached 28.8% and 35.6% (reporting falls), and 89.4 and 57.3 per…
A quiet but deadly health crisis is unfolding among Asian American women who have never smoked. Lung cancer, typically associated with tobacco use, is emerging as a leading cause of death in this population—despite their lack of smoking history. At UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, researchers are sounding the alarm and expanding efforts to understand why.“Lung cancer among never-smokers has now emerged as the single most glaring and under-studied cancer health disparity affecting Asian American women,” said Moon Chen Jr., a principal investigator in the NIH-funded Female Asian Never Smoker (FANS) study. The study, now enrolling participants in Sacramento County,…
Older Americans are suffering from falls at more than double the rate than just two decades ago, with race and ethnicity shaping who is most at risk. In 2020, over 36,500 Americans age 65 and older died from fall-related injuries—a dramatic jump from 10,100 deaths in 1999. When adjusted for age, the fatal fall rate rose from 29 per 100,000 seniors in 1999, to 69 per 100,000 in 2020. No demographic is unaffected by the upward trend, and the new study led by Alexis Santos-Lozada, assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University, shows that fall-related death rates more than doubled among…
Roads designed to move cars quickly through cities are exacting a deadly toll on Black and brown communities, widening racial health disparities tied to transportation policy and urban design. Research highlighted by the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies shows that people of color are far more likely to be killed while walking or biking than white residents, even when they make up a smaller share of the population.In Los Angeles, the imbalance is stark. Black residents accounted for 8.6 percent of the city’s population but represented more than 18 percent of pedestrians killed and about 15 percent of…