August 4, 2023 – A recent study shows that systemic racism, which has spread to just about every county within the United States, continues to guide to preventable deaths of individuals of color.
Across the country, blacks, American Indians and Alaska Natives died from any cause at higher rates than whites. Meanwhile, Asians and Latinos had a lower risk of dying from any cause in comparison with whites.
The Results were published this week in The Lancet. The researchers analyzed information from death certificates and district-level population characteristics from two national databases for the years 2000 to 2019. The combined information was used to estimate what number of deaths were attributable to 19 different causes based on an individual's age, sex, district of residence and ethnic group.
In almost all the greater than 3,000 counties studied, there have been clear differences between racial and ethnic groups. American Indians and Alaska Natives died more often from skin and subcutaneous diseases, HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases than whites.
Black individuals are more likely than whites to die from complications of diabetes, kidney disease, maternal or newborn diseases, HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted infections.
“The consistency of these patterns strongly suggests common root causes and underscores the widespread, persistent, and negative impacts of systemic racism on health,” said researcher Laura Dwyer-Lindgren, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of health metrics science on the University of Washington, in a opinion.
In 2021, the CDC declared racism a public health crisis because communities of color were more severely affected by COVID-19. At the time, the CDC noted that “these structural inequities across generations have resulted in stark racial and ethnic health disparities that are severe, pervasive, and unacceptable.”
In this recent study, neurological disorders – diseases that affect the brain and nervous system – were the one reason for death that occurred more steadily amongst whites than other races and ethnicities.
Heart disease and cancer were the 2 leading causes of death for the population as an entire.
“The time to intervene was yesterday,” said Ali Mokdad, PhD, professor of health metrics science on the University of Washington, in an announcement. “Every day that passes without equitable health care, better programs and new policies, the United States sees more unnecessary deaths, especially from preventable diseases.”