Today, a study conducted by myself, @Fixed_Effects, @aaronsojourner & @LauraHuangLA published in @PNASNews: pnas.org/content/early/… Cc:@KatherineJWu @ByNinaMartin @PublicHealthUMN @UMNews @minnpop @CTurlington @neel_shah @afrakt @UREssien @mg_galvin 1/12
We explore racial concordance in infant mortality. In the US Black infants die at 3 times the rate of white. The reasons are complex and multifactorial as discussed by many scholars like @DrDaraDMendez @maeveellen @mclemoremr @drbdchambers and many many more. 2/12
We know that physician-patient racial concordance confers greater patient satisfaction thanks to seminal work by @LisaCooperMD & others. Also, groundbreaking work by Dr.Alsan tells us that Black men are more likely to access racially concordant care: nber.org/papers/w24787 3/12
So, leveraging data from Florida between 1992 & 2015, we posit that differences in survival rates across Black and white newborns during childbirth may be ameliorated by racial concordance between physician and newborn patient. 4/12
Our primary finding: when Black newborns are cared for by Black MDs, the mortality penalty they suffer as compared with white infants is HALVED. Furthermore, the more complicated the case, the effects manifest more strongly. 5/12
Our study provides the First evidence that the Black-white newborn mortality gap is smaller when Black MDs provide care for Black newborns than when white MDs do, lending support to research examining the importance of racial concordance in addressing health care inequities.6/12
So many now will ask Why? The reasons are complex and many. Start with this @NEJM piece: nejm.org/doi/full/10.10… Consider our (@katybkoz,@RootsBirthMpls, @BeahboutIT) @IRLeaders @RWJF study describing the power of culturally centered maternity care: 7/12
Consider that Black people make up 13% of the US population but only 5% of the MD workforce. Also read nejm.org/doi/full/10.10… where we (@EmedinaEduardo & @RheaBoydMD)describe the need to “Desegregate the health care workforce” 8/12
Finally, consider the racist roots of the US shared here: nejm.org/doi/full/10.10… & in work by amazing scholars like @bcunningMDPHD @DorothyERoberts @CamaraJones @uche_blackstock & many more offering insight into the deep racial injustices at the hands of health care systems 9/12
While more research is needed to illuminate our study findings, we must continue to support the important work already happening by incredible Scholars & Black Orgs: @BlkMamasMatter @mclemoremr @doccrearperry @SisterSong_WOC @RJEpiOBWarrior and many more. 10/12
And support policy work like the #MomnibusAct championed by @RepUnderwood & state efforts like that in California to offer #antiracism & implicit bias training to clinicians: diversityscience.org/training-and-e… cc: @DiversitySci @CHCFNews 11/12
Black babies have been dying at disproportionate rates since as long as we've collected data. The time is NOW to change this and to ensure that Black infants are afforded the opportunity to thrive. 12/12
