Structural Racism: A Call to Action for Health and Health Disparities Research

AbstractThe role of engineers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and in the elimination of health disparities, while not always visible, has important implications for the attainment of impactful solutions. The design skills, systems approach, and innovative mindset that engineers bring all have the potential to combat crises in novel and impactful ways. When a disparities lens is applied, a lens that views gaps in access, resources, and care, the engineering solutions are bound to be more robust and equitable. The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the Black community and other communities of color is linked to inequities in health rooted in a centuries long structural racism. Engineers working collaboratively with physicians and healthcare providers are poised to close equity gaps and strengthen the collective response to COVID-19 and future pandemics.

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Naming the Problem: Publishing Trends within in Urology on Race, Health Disparities and Structural Racism

Urology ◽

10.1016/j.urology.2021.07.048 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Adrien N. Bernstein ◽

Ruchika Talwar ◽

Cheyenne Williams ◽

Andres Correa ◽

Brandon Mahal

Keyword(s):

Health Disparities ◽

Structural Racism

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Health Disparities in Black Patients with Severe Mental Illness and the Role of Structural Racism

Psychiatric Annals ◽

10.3928/00485713-20201007-01 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 50 (11) ◽

pp. 483-488

Author(s):

Uzoamaka Asonye ◽

Nicholas Apping ◽

Leonardo V. Lopez ◽

Dennis M. Popeo

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Health Disparities ◽

Severe Mental Illness ◽

Structural Racism ◽

Black Patients

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Achieving Health Equity Through Eradicating Structural Racism in the United States: A Call to Action for Nursing Leadership

Journal of Nursing Scholarship ◽

10.1111/jnu.12602 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 52 (6) ◽

pp. 696-704

Author(s):

Deena Nardi ◽

Roberta Waite ◽

Marian Nowak ◽

Barbara Hatcher ◽

Vicki Hines‐Martin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Health Equity ◽

The United States ◽

Nursing Leadership ◽

Structural Racism ◽

Call To Action

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Structural Racism and Health Disparities

The Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics ◽

10.1177/1073110520958876 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. 518-526 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ruqaiijah Yearby

Keyword(s):

Health Disparities ◽

Social Factors ◽

Racial Health Disparities ◽

Structural Racism ◽

Access To Resources ◽

Racial Inequalities ◽

Root Cause ◽

The Government

The government recognizes that social factors cause racial inequalities in access to resources and opportunities that result in racial health disparities. However, this recognition fails to acknowledge the root cause of these racial inequalities: structural racism. As a result, racial health disparities persist.

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Tobacco-Related Health Disparities in Gender-Diverse Populations: A Call to Action

Transgender Health ◽

10.1089/trgh.2019.0063 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 86-89

Author(s):

Rhonda Schwindt ◽

Nervana Elkhadragy ◽

Karen Suchanek Hudmon

Keyword(s):

Health Disparities ◽

Diverse Populations ◽

Call To Action ◽

Gender Diverse

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A call to action to address rural mental health disparities

Journal of Clinical and Translational Science ◽

10.1017/cts.2020.42 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (5) ◽

pp. 463-467

Author(s):

Dawn A. Morales ◽

Crystal L. Barksdale ◽

Andrea C. Beckel-Mitchener

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Disparities ◽

Minority Health ◽

Metropolitan Areas ◽

Health Priorities ◽

Call To Action ◽

Persistent Problem ◽

Research Framework ◽

The Usa ◽

Multiple Levels

AbstractRural residents in the USA experience significant disparities in mental health outcomes even though the prevalence of mental illness in rural and metropolitan areas is similar. This is a persistent problem that requires innovative approaches to resolve. Adopting and appropriately modifying the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities research framework are the potential approaches to understanding how these disparities might be addressed through research. Using this research framework can facilitate interrogation of multiple levels of influence, encompassing complex domains of influence and consideration of the entire life course trajectory, which is consistent with several National Institute of Mental Health priorities.

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Structural Racism and Quantitative Causal Inference: A Life Course Mediation Framework for Decomposing Racial Health Disparities

Journal of Health and Social Behavior ◽

10.1177/00221465211066108 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 002214652110661

Author(s):

Nick Graetz ◽

Courtney E. Boen ◽

Michael H. Esposito

Keyword(s):

Health Disparities ◽

Social Process ◽

Adult Health ◽

Racial Health Disparities ◽

Structural Racism ◽

Quantitative Studies ◽

Critical Theories ◽

Regression Estimators ◽

Counterfactual Approach ◽

Conventional Regression

Quantitative studies of racial health disparities often use static measures of self-reported race and conventional regression estimators, which critics argue is inconsistent with social-constructivist theories of race, racialization, and racism. We demonstrate an alternative counterfactual approach to explain how multiple racialized systems dynamically shape health over time, examining racial inequities in cardiometabolic risk in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. This framework accounts for the dynamics of time-varying confounding and mediation that is required in operationalizing a “race” variable as part of a social process ( racism) rather than a separable, individual characteristic. We decompose the observed disparity into three types of effects: a controlled direct effect (“unobserved racism”), proportions attributable to interaction (“racial discrimination”), and pure indirect effects (“emergent discrimination”). We discuss the limitations of counterfactual approaches while highlighting how they can be combined with critical theories to quantify how interlocking systems produce racial health inequities.

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What Pete Buttigieg—and all White Americans—Need to Understand About Racism

Iris Journal of Scholarship ◽

10.15695/iris.v2i0.4832 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

pp. 174-177

Author(s):

Rachel Ann Hanebutt

Keyword(s):

Education System ◽

Racial Inequality ◽

Theoretical Perspective ◽

Central Issue ◽

Presidential Candidate ◽

White Americans ◽

White Educators ◽

Structural Racism ◽

Call To Action ◽

Opinion Piece

It is essential that educators, particularly white educators, work to understand racial inequality within a prophetic framework, refuse to perpetuate inaccurate and racist images of black and brown youth, and actively deconstruct structural inequalities within the education system. Structural racism, especially that which has been institutionalized within and in perceptions about the education system, is an important issue for the field of education that was recently the central issue of the eye-catching hashtag, #PeteButtigiegisaLyingMF. This Voices opinion piece examines Michael Harriot’s initiation of a conversation about understandings of structural racism with 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, contextualizes this online moment through a theoretical perspective, and provides a call to action for white educators.

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Achieving Health Equity in Colorectal Cancer: A Call to Action

American Society of Clinical Oncology Educational Book ◽

10.14694/edbook_am.2013.33.169 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 169-173

Author(s):

Toni M. Cipriano ◽

Blase N. Polite

Keyword(s):

Colon Cancer ◽

Health Disparities ◽

Lifestyle Changes ◽

Call To Action ◽

Appropriate Treatment ◽

Timely Fashion ◽

Cancer Specific Mortality ◽

Race Ethnicity ◽

To Receive

Whether defined by race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status, there are clear health disparities in colon cancer—disparities that exist whether you measure screening, incidence, or mortality. Rather than rehash disparity statistics, the purpose of this educational article is to highlight important resources and how they can be used to help narrow these disparities. Although the logistics can be complex, the general solutions to eliminating colon cancer health disparities are not complex. They are as follows: Asymptomatic persons need to be screened. After being screened, they need to be diagnosed. After being diagnosed, they need to receive appropriate treatment in a timely fashion. After receiving treatment, they have to receive appropriate follow-up and information and advice on lifestyle changes. If we can implement these measures, then cancer-specific mortality disparities will be dramatically reduced, if not eliminated.

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