Independent Research Week Nine, Post One (Notes)

 Research Racial Inequalities in Health: Using What We Already Know to Take Action

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6406315/

• Health disparities based on race have been persistent throughout the history of our country, and no matter the work that has been put in to attempt to shrink the gap, it remains prevalent
• Solutions should be just as complex as the issue; there is no one size fits all approach
• Development of communities of opportunity; provide early childhood development resources, implement policies to reduce childhood poverty, provide work and income support opportunities for adults, ensure healthy housing and neighborhood conditions. 
• Healthcare; new emphases on ensuring access to high quality care for all, strengthening preventive health care approaches, addressing patients’ social needs as part of healthcare delivery, and diversifying the healthcare work force to more closely reflect the demographic composition of the patient population. 
• Research into identifying the optimal strategies to build political will and support to address social inequities in health. 
• This will include initiatives to raise awareness levels of the pervasiveness of inequities in health, build empathy and support for addressing inequities, enhance the capacity of individuals and communities to actively participate in intervention efforts and implement large scale efforts to reduce racial prejudice, ideologies, and stereotypes in the larger culture that undergird policy preferences that initiate and sustain inequities.
• Black, Native American and Latinx communities all have lower life expectancy than white counterparts
• Native Americans even less than Black Americans
• Life expectancy of immigrants upon arrival is generally better than their US born counterparts, but decreases as their stay in the United States increases
• 2/3 of black and Latino youth (2-19 yrs old) are expected to be obese by age 35
• Nat'l average is 57%
• Suicide rates among white children decreased, stabilized in Lation youth, and doubled in black youth
• Child Poverty 
• 33% of NA and Black 
• 26% Latino
• 11% of White children
• Public education investment
• The study found that every $100 increase in spending on public education led to two fewer deaths per 100,000 population and a one standard deviation change in tax progressivity resulted in 6 fewer deaths per 100,000 population.
• Declines in mortality more for black women than black men
• Military involvement increases health and stability 
• A dollar increase in the minimum wage above the federal minimum was associated with a 1% to 2% decrease in low birth weight and a 4% decrease in post-neonatal mortality. 
• The researchers estimated that if all states in 2014 had increased their minimum wage by one dollar, there would have been 2790 fewer low birth weight births and 518 fewer post-neonatal deaths for the year. 
• Income supplementation is also associated with improved health of the elderly. The Social Security program is an old-age pension program that provides additional income to the elderly. Research reveals that both the initial implementation of the program and later increases in the level of benefits were associated with mortality declines for the elderly [27].
• Hospital death disparities
• Racial disparities in in-hospital maternal mortality decreased between 2006 and 2015, but significant disparities remain. 
• In 2006 the rate of in-hospital death was 248 percent higher for Black women, 50 percent higher for Hispanic women, and 69 percent higher for Asian/Pacific Islander women than for White women. In 2015, the rate for Blacks was 193 percent higher and the rate for Hispanics was 31 percent higher than the rate for Whites.
• Implicit Bias
• Research also indicates that rapid and unconscious emotional and neural reactions to blacks occur for most Americans within 100 milliseconds, that is, in about one third of the time that it takes for us to blink our eyes (300 to 400 milliseconds).