Native communities in the United States continue to face the highest rates of diabetes and related complications of any ethnic group. Nearly 15% of Native people have some form of diabetes, with some populations, like the Pima Nation in Arizona, reporting rates over 50%—the highest in the world. Dr. Valarie Blue Bird Jernigan, director of the Center for Indigenous Health Research and Policy, attributes this crisis to systemic issues like food insecurity, poverty, and limited access to healthcare and exercise.“In order to really address diabetes, we have to address the environment that our community members live in,” Jernigan said. Historical…
Author: Disparity Matters
Cesarean section rates are rising worldwide, but the disparities between regions and populations reveal troubling patterns in maternal care. According to recent global data, the average cesarean rate has climbed to 21.1%, with projections suggesting it could reach 28.5% by 2030[1]. The World Health Organization recommends a rate between 10% and 15%, warning that higher rates offer no added benefit and may increase health risks.Latin America and the Caribbean lead with rates over 42.8%, while sub-Saharan Africa remains at just 5%, often due to limited access to surgical care. In Brazil, private hospitals report cesarean rates exceeding 80%, driven by…
A national study of Medicare data has uncovered alarming disparities in major lower extremity amputation rates, revealing that urban communities with high proportions of Black residents and low socioeconomic status face risks comparable to rural areas. While rural ZIP codes had higher average amputation rates, nearly 80% of patients who underwent amputations lived in metropolitan areas.Between 2010 and 2018, ZIP codes with the highest amputation rates had a significantly greater proportion of Black residents—17.5% compared to 4.4% in the lowest quartile. These high-rate ZIP codes also had lower median household incomes and higher Distressed Communities Index scores. In cities like…
A new study reveals that many Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) women face a disproportionately high risk of lung cancer—even if they’ve never smoked. Researchers found that never-smoking Chinese American women had more than double the lung cancer incidence rate of their non-Hispanic white counterparts. Filipinx, Native Hawaiian, and other Asian groups also showed significantly elevated rates.Among never-smoking AANHPI women, the lung cancer incidence rate was 17.1 per 100,000, compared to 10.1 among non-Hispanic white women. Chinese American women topped the list at 22.8 per 100,000. “Our study revealed high rates of lung cancer among most never-smoking…
A major study has revealed that Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) women who have never smoked face significantly higher rates of lung cancer than previously recognized. Using data from over 1.2 million women across California and Hawai’i, researchers found that nearly 44% of AANHPI women diagnosed with lung cancer had never smoked—almost double the rate seen in non-Hispanic White women.Chinese American women showed the highest incidence among never-smokers, with a rate of 22.8 per 100,000, more than twice that of their White counterparts. Filipinx and other Asian groups also had elevated rates, while Japanese American women were…
Fatal crashes on U.S. roads are emerging as a stark measure of racial health disparities, with Black, Indigenous and other people of color shouldering a disproportionate share of the burden. The Governors Highway Safety Association report concludes that “BIPOC are disproportionately represented in fatal traffic crashes,” calling this imbalance “a significant health disparity” and “a chronic public health issue in minority communities.”Across nearly every category of traffic death, American Indian and Alaska Native people have the highest per-capita fatality rates, followed by Black people in many key measures, including total traffic deaths and pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities. These gaps persist…
Pedestrian injuries in the United States reveal a stark and persistent racial divide, according to a national analysis of more than 376,000 hospitalizations. The study reports that the burden of injury “was higher among Black, Hispanic, and Multiracial/Other groups” across multiple measures, including admission rates, costs per capita, and severity of illness.Hospitalization rates show some of the clearest disparities. Black residents experienced 15.6 admissions per 100,000 people, while Multiracial/Other groups reached 24.9—both notably higher than the rate for Whites at 13.0. Mortality rates followed a similar pattern, with Blacks and Multiracial/Other groups facing the highest death rates.Financial and medical consequences…
Focused on impacts of daily discrimination, which contribute to poor health.
Improved diagnosis, treatment, and advocacy for Black women with endometrial cancer facing delayed care.
New federal data reveal that pedestrians from racial and ethnic minority groups are disproportionately filling U.S. emergency departments after being struck by motor vehicles. Drawing on near real-time records from about 301 million emergency department visits between January 2021 and December 2023, researchers found 137,325 visits involved a pedestrian injury, an overall proportion of 45.62 pedestrian injury visits per 100,000 total visits.The burden was not shared equally. Visit proportions for pedestrian injuries were 1.53 to 2.47 times as high among six racial and ethnic minority groups as among non-Hispanic White patients. Non-Hispanic multiracial persons or persons of another race had…