Thread by @socialcreaturz

Racism is a public health crisis, a thread:

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(Focusing predominantly on black health inequities, for now.)

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Black life expectancy is 3.5 years less than white life expectancy in the U.S.

(Source: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics)
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With black man having the lowest life expectancy of any major demographic group.

(Source: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics)
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Black people are 3x more likely to be killed by police than white people:

mappingpoliceviolence.org
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But racial health inequalities are so much more than an issue of police violence...

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Even at birth, the playing field is not level for black individuals.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28660838/
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The infant mortality rate for Black women’s babies is 11%...more than 2x the rates among white, Asian and Hispanic women, and nearly double the overall rate.

(Source: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics & US Dept of Health & Human Services Office of Minority Health)
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Black women have the highest rate of pregnancy-related deaths, and are 4x more likely to die than white women as a complication of pregnancy or childbirth.

(Source: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics & US Dept of Health & Human Services Office of Minority Health)
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Black people also face the highest mortality rate of any racial and ethnic group for all cancers combined.

(Source: US Dept of Health & Human Services Office of Minority Health)
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Black people are 20% more likely to die from heart disease than white people.

(Source: US Dept of Health & Human Services Office of Minority Health)
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Black people are 40% more likely to have high blood pressure than white people.

(Source: US Dept of Health & Human Services Office of Minority Health)
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Black individuals are nearly 3x more likely to die from asthma-related causes than white people.

(Source: US Dept of Health & Human Services Office of Minority Health)
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23% of #COVID19 deaths in the U.S. are black, even though black people make up 13% of the U.S. population.

(Source: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics)
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The list goes on and on....

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Discrimination, faced on the individual and structural level, places people of color at increased risk for high stress and inflammation levels and other physiological changes, contributing to the emergence of health disparities.

See: link.springer.com/article/10.100…
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And:

bit.ly/3dlT4rp
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And:

bit.ly/2Mk4yQc
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The conditions in which people live, work, and play—called ‘social determinants of health’—can also further contribute to health disparities.

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In the U.S., black people face on avg heightened exposure to neighborhood violence, environmental pollution, & infectious agent exposure...lower socioeconomic status, less access to quality healthcare, less access nutritious food & clean water...

healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.13…
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...in part due to residential, school, workplace, and social segregation, as well as opportunity gaps related to discriminatory allocation of resources that persist today. #StructuralRacism

www-cambridge-org.ezproxy.med.nyu.edu/core/journals/…
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Structural racism permeates every level of society to produce health disparities.

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To our non-black followers: please remember these data when you hear the cries of the black community. The deaths of #GeorgeFloyd #BreonnaTaylor #AhmaudAubrey only scratch the surface of the ways systemic racism place them at increased risk every day.

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Please use your #WhitePrivilege or #NonBlackPrivilege to educate others on disparities faced by the black community, amplify black voices, & dismantle structural racism. Sharing this thread is a good place to start.

#BlackLivesMatter #RacismIsAPublicHealthCrisis
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