Gun-related suicides in the United States hit another record high in 2023, with disturbing surges among Black and Hispanic youth. According to a report from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, gun suicides accounted for 58% of the nation’s 46,728 firearm deaths—one every 11 minutes. While overall gun homicides declined, suicides by firearm reached the highest levels ever recorded for the third year in a row.National data show a 245% increase in gun suicide rates among Black youth ages 10–19 since 2014, with an 81% rise since 2019. Hispanic youth in the same age group saw gun suicide…
Author: Disparity Matters
A new study published in JAMA Network Open found that Black patients were 17.1% less likely and Hispanic patients 16.2% less likely than white patients to receive buprenorphine or naltrexone within six months of a substance use-related health event. “We’ve seen rising overdoses and rising overdose deaths in racial and ethnic minoritized communities, particularly Black Americans,” said Dr. Utsha Khatri, lead author and assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She attributed much of the disparity to lack of access to effective medications. The study analyzed data from 176,000 health events across Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, and…
A new study reveals that Florida’s mosquito control system may be reinforcing public health disparities, with wealthier areas receiving better protection against mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, West Nile, and Zika.
Evictions are emerging as a potent driver of racial health disparities, pushing Black mothers and their children into cycles of illness, stress and instability. Half of the Black women in a Detroit-area study reported experiencing an eviction, underscoring how disproportionately this crisis falls on Black renters and their neighborhoods.Research from the SECURE Study — Social Epidemiology to Combat Unjust Residential Evictions — links both court-ordered and illegal evictions to higher risks of premature birth, a leading cause of infant death. Black mothers living in areas with more evictions face a 68 percent higher risk of delivering early, tying housing instability…
Latino communities in Los Angeles are bearing the brunt of climate change and environmental neglect, according to new data from UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute. The Latino Climate and Health Dashboard reveals that Latino-majority neighborhoods experience 25 extreme heat days per year—more than triple the number in white-majority areas. “Extreme heat isn’t just uncomfortable, it’s deadly,” said Irene Burga of Green Latinos. These neighborhoods often lack tree cover, have older housing without modern cooling systems, and are home to workers in heat-exposed jobs. Tree canopy covers just 4% of land in Latino neighborhoods, compared to 9% in white areas.…
A new study reveals that Florida’s mosquito control system may be reinforcing public health disparities, with wealthier areas receiving better protection against mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, West Nile, and Zika.
Activists in Memphis are sounding the alarm over the Colossus data center, operated by Elon Musk’s xAI, arguing that its gas turbines are putting the health of nearby residents—largely Black families—at risk. The complaint, filed by the NAACP and the Southern Environmental Law Center, accuses xAI of running the massive facility “outside of EPA regulations, worsening the air in a mostly-Black neighborhood.” Long-standing environmental issues in Memphis have harmed its majority Black population, and the Colossus plant is said to emit far more pollutants than regulations permit for its size.Since June 2024, Colossus has powered xAI’s chatbot Grok through methane-burning…
The killing of 19-year-old Sade Robinson in Milwaukee has intensified calls to confront a crisis that disproportionately endangers Black women and girls. In Wisconsin and nationwide, violence against Black women is increasingly recognized not only as a criminal justice issue but as a profound public health disparity with lethal consequences.State Rep. Shelia Stubbs has renewed her push to create a Wisconsin task force on missing and murdered Black women, arguing that years of inaction have cost lives. “Three years is three years too long,” Stubbs said, asking how many victims have been lost while lawmakers waited. The proposed task force…
A new study published in the Journal of Perinatology reveals stark racial disparities in the diagnosis, severity, and treatment of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a serious brain injury caused by oxygen deprivation at birth. Analyzing data from over 31 million births between 2010 and 2018, researchers found that African American newborns were 60% more likely to develop HIE than white infants and twice as likely to experience severe forms of the condition. The disparities didn’t stop at diagnosis. African American infants with HIE had significantly higher overall mortality rates, with an adjusted odds ratio of 2.14. However, when comparing only infants…
New Jersey is making strides in maternal health, reducing unnecessary Cesarean deliveries through targeted policy reforms. A new analysis from Rutgers School of Public Health shows the state’s low-risk Cesarean birth rate dropped from 30.2% in 2016 to 27.3% in 2023. Among Medicaid patients, the rate fell even further—from 24.8% to 21.3%—highlighting the impact of the Nurture NJ initiative.Cesarean births, while sometimes medically necessary, carry risks and are more common among Black, non-Hispanic women. The Rutgers report emphasizes that racial disparities in low-risk Cesarean rates remain, even as overall numbers improve.Assistant Professor Slawa Rokicki, who led the analysis, noted, “It…