Structural racism and health inequities in the USA: evidence and interventions.

Lancet

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Long Island City, NY, USA. Electronic address:

Published: April 2017

AI Article Synopsis

  • Many experts and officials struggle to acknowledge racism as a core cause of health disparities, despite rising interest in social influences on health.
  • This report examines structural racism, which encompasses the interconnected systems that perpetuate racial discrimination across various societal domains.
  • Focusing on structural racism could provide a practical and effective strategy for achieving health equity and enhancing overall public health.

Article Abstract

Despite growing interest in understanding how social factors drive poor health outcomes, many academics, policy makers, scientists, elected officials, journalists, and others responsible for defining and responding to the public discourse remain reluctant to identify racism as a root cause of racial health inequities. In this conceptual report, the third in a Series on equity and equality in health in the USA, we use a contemporary and historical perspective to discuss research and interventions that grapple with the implications of what is known as structural racism on population health and health inequities. Structural racism refers to the totality of ways in which societies foster racial discrimination through mutually reinforcing systems of housing, education, employment, earnings, benefits, credit, media, health care, and criminal justice. These patterns and practices in turn reinforce discriminatory beliefs, values, and distribution of resources. We argue that a focus on structural racism offers a concrete, feasible, and promising approach towards advancing health equity and improving population health.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30569-XDOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

structural racism
16
health inequities
12
health
9
population health
8
structural
4
racism health
4
inequities usa
4
usa evidence
4
evidence interventions
4
interventions despite
4

Similar Publications

Outsiders at Medical School: Indigenous experiences in medical courses at Brazilian federal universities.

Cien Saude Colet

December 2024

Departamento de Saúde Pública, Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista. São Paulo SP Brasil.

In recent decades, affirmative actions have enabled Indigenous people to access medical school, historically occupied by white people with high family incomes. This research analyzed experiences of otherness by Indigenous people in federal medical schools. This qualitative, exploratory study adopted interviews and conversation circles, with the participation of 40 students from 15 courses.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ethnic-racial composition of the population in COVID-19 mortality: A spatial ecological approach to Brazilian health inequalities.

Cien Saude Colet

December 2024

Programa de Pós-Graduação em Epidemiologia e Métodos Quantitativos em Saúde, Fiocruz. Rio de Janeiro RJ Brasil.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unevenly affected regions, countries, and ethnic-racial segments. Socioenvironmental factors were associated with worse disease evolution, with a greater likelihood of mortality in vulnerable people. This study aimed to investigate the association between the proportion of vulnerable populations (Black, brown, and Indigenous people) and mortality from COVID-19 in Brazil from March 2020 to February 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Pregnancy is a unique stage of the life course characterized by trade-offs between the nutritional, immune, and metabolic needs of the mother and fetus. The Camden Study was originally initiated to examine nutritional status, growth, and birth outcomes in adolescent pregnancies and expanded to study dietary and molecular predictors of pregnancy complications and birth outcomes in young women.

Methods: From 1985-2006, 4765 pregnant participants aged 12 years and older were recruited from Camden, NJ, one of the poorest cities in the US.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A growing literature within the field of air pollution exposure assessment addresses the issue of environmental justice. Leveraging the increasing availability of exposure datasets with broad spatial coverage and high spatial resolution, a number of works have assessed inequalities in exposure across racial/ethnic and other socioeconomic groupings. However, environmental justice research presents the additional need to evaluate exposure inequity-inequality that is systematic, unfair, and avoidable-which may be framed in several ways.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Studies examining racial and ethnic disparities in-hospital mortality for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had mixed results. Findings from patients within academic medical centers (AMCs) are lacking, but important given the role of AMCs in improving health equity.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess whether minority patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) institutions, which consist predominantly of AMCs, have higher mortality rates relative to White patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!