US health officials released a report this week detailing the “inequities across race, sex and income levels with respect to how likely a person is to be sick or healthy,” according to a recent AFP report.
Healthcare access, exposure to environmental hazards, and behavioral risk factors varied greatly according to ethnicity, gender and social class, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“I don’t think we saw any surprises necessarily,” Leandris Liburd, director of the CDC office of minority health and health equity, told AFP.
“But what the report does provide that we haven’t seen before is a really detailed analysis of the 22 topic areas,” she said, adding that it highlighted the “disproportionate burden” faced by certain groups when it comes to a variety of health issues.
For example, African American men and women are much more likely to die from heart disease or stroke than Caucasians.
Hispanic teens have a five times higher pregnancy rate than Asians, and families near the poverty level are more likely to have smokers than those where the income levels are higher.
Native Americans and Alaskan natives have the highest death rate in automobile accidents — 29 deaths per thousand.
And across the board, men are four times as likely was women to commit suicide.
The report found that High blood pressure is more frequent among blacks (42 percent) than whites (29 percent).
Drug use deaths are the highest among non-Hispanic whites and lowest among Asians and Pacific Islanders.
Also, the rate of preventable hospitalization goes up as incomes fall.
The CDC said $6.7 billion per year in healthcare costs could be avoided if these disparities were eliminated.
“Better information about the health status of different groups is essential to improve health,” said CDC chief Thomas Frieden. “This first of its kind analysis and reporting of recent trends is designed to spur action and accountability at the federal, tribal, state and local levels to achieve health equity in this country.”
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