An online article on CNN, entitled Among seniors, Black men more likely to die after surgery than their peers, new study suggests, suggests issues with inequities in health care access as evidenced in a recent study Inequities in surgical outcomes by race and sex in the United States: retrospective cohort study. The article states “Among older patients, Black men may have a higher chance of dying within 30 days following surgery than their peers, according to a new study.” In terms of the cause, “Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa, the senior author of the study and associate professor of medicine at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine” says that while “the study did not explore what could be driving the disparity but Tsugawa said that “several factors” could potentially play a role.”
“The structural racism may at least partially explain our findings. For example, Black patients living in neighborhoods with predominantly Black residents tend to live close to hospitals that lack resources to provide high quality healthcare,” Tsugawa said in the email. “It is possible that Black men in particular face especially high cumulative amounts of stress and allostatic load, which refers to the cumulative burden of chronic stress and life events, potentially leading to a higher death rate after surgery among this population.”
This highlights the barrier to public health of Location/Access to Quality Medial Care. Several of our stories, including Amaka, Jessica, and Halimah, also point to how the location of health care facilities impacts people.
HEALTH CONVERSATIONS: When Aware We Care 