Lupus strikes Black women with devastating frequency, affecting them at three times the rate of white women while also causing more severe illness. This chronic autoimmune disease, which prompts the body to attack its own healthy tissues and organs, affects approximately 204,000 Americans but places an especially heavy burden on Black communities.Dr. Keith Elkon, professor emeritus in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, explains that hormones play a crucial role since nine out of ten lupus patients are female. Animal studies suggest estrogen contributes to both the development and severity of the disease. However,…
Author: Disparity Matters
Patients with type 2 diabetes who prefer non-English languages are significantly less likely to receive prescriptions for continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), according to a study of over 69,000 adults in a large U.S. health system. Despite being more likely to use insulin and have uncontrolled diabetes, only 7.4% of patients with non-English language preference (NELP) had a CGM prescription, compared to 12.7% of English-preferring patients. After adjusting for age, sex, race, insurance, and clinical factors, the disparity persisted. Patients with NELP had 4.1% lower adjusted probability of receiving a CGM. Among insulin users and those with poorly controlled diabetes, the…
Deaths from alcohol-related liver disease in the United States have doubled over the past two decades, with minority groups and younger adults facing a growing share of the toll. Researchers analyzing nearly 440,000 deaths between 1999 and 2022 found that the age-adjusted mortality rate climbed from 6.71 to 12.53 per 100,000, with a sharp spike during the COVID-19 pandemic.The study identified “disproportionate increases” among Native American and Alaska Native communities, women, and adults between the ages of 25 and 44. For Native Americans in particular, the findings point to a crisis layered on top of long-standing health inequities. The researchers…
A new study reveals that official U.S. records significantly undercount deaths among American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN), distorting the true scale of health disparities. At least 41% of AI/AN decedents were misclassified on death certificates, often labeled as white. This misreporting inflates life expectancy estimates and conceals the severity of mortality gaps. The actual life expectancy gap between AI/AN individuals and the national average is 6.5 years—nearly three times larger than previously reported. From 2008 to 2019, AI/AN life expectancy averaged just 72.7 years, comparable to countries like El Salvador and Bangladesh. Even those with college degrees died significantly…
New research reveals that access to GLP-1 receptor agonists—medications used to treat obesity and metabolic conditions—varies significantly by race and ethnicity. Black and Hispanic patients eligible for these medications were less likely than white patients to receive a prescription within a year, even after adjusting for income, insurance, and health status.Dr. Sarpong Boateng, co-author of the study, said the team wanted to explore treatment delays, especially among patients with overlapping conditions like fatty liver disease. The study analyzed data from over 89,000 adults with type 2 diabetes or obesity. While Asian patients received GLP-1s at similar rates to white patients,…
A new national cohort study reveals that self-identified American Indian and Alaska Native individuals experience a life expectancy of just 72.7 years, which is 6.5 years shorter than the overall United States average of 79.2 years. This gap is far greater than suggested by official statistics, with the true disparity nearly three times wider once underreporting and racial misclassification on death certificates are corrected.From 2008 to 2019, the research tracked over four million U.S. adults, including more than thirty thousand who self-identified as American Indian or Alaska Native. It found that only 59% of these Native individuals had their race…
A new study suggests that differences in tumor collagen structure could help explain why Black patients with breast or colon cancer often experience worse outcomes than white patients, even when receiving similar care. Researchers at the University of Rochester used second-harmonic generation imaging to analyze collagen fibers in tumor samples from over 300 patients. They focused on two key features: the forward-to-backward (F/B) light scattering ratio and fiber angle variability (FAV). Among breast cancer patients, Black individuals had lower F/B ratios in the tumor-stroma interface—a region critical to cancer spread. This pattern has been linked in earlier research to a…
A new study reveals that where and how people live throughout their lives may leave a lasting imprint on their brains. Researchers found that each year spent in a socially and environmentally disadvantaged area increased the odds of vascular brain injury (VBI) by about 4%. These small but significant injuries—such as infarcts, microinfarcts, and white matter rarefaction—are closely tied to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.The study analyzed brain tissue from 740 donors whose residential histories were linked to the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), a measure of neighborhood disadvantage. The findings show that people who lived in high-ADI areas throughout their…
New research presented at the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery’s annual meeting reveals persistent racial disparities in post-operative outcomes for weight-loss surgery. Black patients were found to experience significantly more minor complications than white patients following procedures like sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass. Analyzing data from over 1.1 million patients between 2016 and 2023, researchers from Yale University found that Black patients consistently had higher rates of Clavien-Dindo category 1 complications. In 2016, the rate was 10.2% for Black patients compared to 7.6% for white patients. By 2023, the gap remained, with rates at 15.0% and 12.1%, respectively.…
Black Americans with poor heart health are more likely to develop dementia than their white counterparts, according to a long-term study tracking more than 2,600 older adults. The findings highlight a troubling disparity: even when Black participants had equal or better cardiovascular health, their risk of dementia remained higher.Researchers used the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7 scoring system, which includes physical activity, smoking, weight, diet, cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar. While better heart health reduced dementia risk for all groups, the benefit was smaller for Black participants.Black individuals with the lowest cardiovascular scores were nearly twice as likely…