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The politics hypothesis and racial disparities in infants' health in the United States.

ABSTRACT: We propose the politics hypothesis-i.e., the hypothesis that political forces comprise either a powerful predecessor of the social determinants of health or are essential social determinants of health themselves. We examine the hypothesis that political actors like presidents, their ideology, and institutions like the political parties they represent shape overall and race-specific health outcomes. Using census and Vital Statistics data among many other sources, we apply both theory- and data-driven statistical methods to assess the role of the president's party and the president's political ideology as predictors of overall and race-specific infant mortality in the United States, 1965-2010. We find that, net of trend, Republican presidencies and socially-conservative ideology of U.S. presidents are strongly associated with slower declines of infant mortality rates, overall and for white and black infants, compared to Democratic and socially-liberal presidents in the U.S. Approximately half (46%) of the white-black infant mortality gap, about 20,000 additional infant deaths, and most if not all the infant mortality rate gap between the U.S. and the rest of the developed world, can be attributed to the 28 years of Republican administrations during the study period. These findings are consistent with the politicization of public health and the conceptualization of politics as a powerful predecessor, in the causal chain, of the social determinants of health. Understanding the political ideological and institutional contexts in which health policies and healthcare and welfare programs are implemented, as well as how governments construct culture and social psychology, provide a more comprehensive framework for understanding and improving population patterns of disease, mortality, and entrenched racial disparities in health in the U.S.

SUBMITTER: Rodriguez JM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6617336 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The politics hypothesis and racial disparities in infants' health in the United States.

Rodriguez Javier M JM

SSM - population health 20190706

We propose the politics hypothesis-i.e., the hypothesis that political forces comprise either a powerful predecessor of the social determinants of health or are essential social determinants of health themselves. We examine the hypothesis that political actors like presidents, their ideology, and institutions like the political parties they represent shape overall and race-specific health outcomes. Using census and Vital Statistics data among many other sources, we apply both theory- and data-dr ...[more]

PMID: 31334324

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Project description:ImportanceRacial/ethnic disparities in quality of care among extremely preterm infants are associated with adverse outcomes.ObjectiveTo assess whether racial/ethnic disparities in major outcomes and key care practices were changing over time among extremely preterm infants.Design, setting, and participantsThis observational cohort study used prospectively collected data from 25 US academic medical centers. Participants included 20?092 infants of 22 to 27 weeks' gestation with a birth weight of 401 to 1500 g born at centers participating in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network from 2002 to 2016. Of these infants, 9316 born from 2006 to 2014 were eligible for follow-up at 18 to 26 months' postmenstrual age (excluding 5871 infants born before 2006, 2594 infants born after 2014, and 2311 ineligible infants including 64 with birth weight >1000 g and 2247 infants with gestational age >26 6/7 weeks), of whom 745 (8.0%) did not have known follow-up outcomes at 18 to 26 months.Main outcomes and measuresRates of mortality, major morbidities, and care practice use over time were evaluated using models adjusted for baseline characteristics, center, and birth year. Data analyses were conducted from 2018 to 2019.ResultsIn total, 20?092 infants with a mean (SD) gestational age of 25.1 (1.5) weeks met the inclusion criteria and were available for the primary outcome: 8331 (41.5%) black infants, 3701 (18.4%) Hispanic infants, and 8060 (40.1%) white infants. Hospital mortality decreased over time in all groups. The rate of improvement in hospital mortality over time did not differ among black and Hispanic infants compared with white infants (black infants went from 35% to 24%, Hispanic infants went from 32% to 27%, and white infants went from 30% to 22%; P?=?.59 for race?×?year interaction). The rates of late-onset sepsis among black infants (went from 37% to 24%) and Hispanic infants (went from 45% to 23%) were initially higher than for white infants (went from 36% to 25%) but decreased more rapidly and converged during the most recent years (P?=?.02 for race?×?year interaction). Changes in rates of other major morbidities did not differ by race/ethnicity. Death before follow-up decreased over time (from 2006 to 2014: black infants, 14%; Hispanic infants, 39%, white infants, 15%), but moderate-severe neurodevelopmental impairment increased over time in all racial/ethnic groups (increase from 2006 to 2014: black infants, 70%; Hispanic infants, 123%; white infants, 130%). Rates of antenatal corticosteroid exposure (black infants went from 72% to 90%, Hispanic infants went from 73% to 83%, and white infants went from 86% to 90%; P?=?.01 for race?×?year interaction) and of cesarean delivery (black infants went from 45% to 59%, Hispanic infants went from 49% to 59%, and white infants went from 62% to 63%; P?=?.03 for race?×?year interaction) were initially lower among black and Hispanic infants compared with white infants, but these differences decreased over time.Conclusions and relevanceAmong extremely preterm infants, improvements in adjusted rates of mortality and most major morbidities did not differ by race/ethnicity, but rates of neurodevelopmental impairment increased in all groups. There were narrowing racial/ethnic disparities in important care practices, including the use of antenatal corticosteroids and cesarean delivery.

Project description:Background: There is an incomplete understanding of disparities in emergency care for children across racial and ethnic groups in the United States. In this project, we sought to investigate patterns in emergency care utilization, disposition, and resource use in children by race and ethnicity after adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and clinical factors. Methods: In this cross-sectional study of emergency department (ED) data from the nationally representative National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Survey (NHAMCS), we examined multiple dimensions of ED care and treatment from 2005 to 2016 among children in the United States. The main outcomes include ED disposition (hospital admission, ICU admission, and in hospital death), resources utilization (medical imaging use, blood tests, and procedure use) and patient ED waiting times and total length of ED stay. The main exposure variable is race/ethnicity, categorized as non-Hispanic white (white), non-Hispanic black (Black), Hispanic, Asian, and Other. Analyses were stratified by race/ethnicity and adjusted for demographic, socioeconomic, and clinical factors. Results: There were 78,471 pediatric (?18 years old) ED encounters, providing a weighted sample of 333,169,620 ED visits eligible for analysis. Black and Hispanic pediatric patients were 8% less likely (aOR 0.92, 95% CI 0.91-0.92) and 14% less likely (aOR 0.86, CI 0.86-0.86), respectively, than whites to have their care needs classified as immediate/emergent. Blacks and Hispanics were also 28 and 3% less likely, respectively, than whites to be admitted to the hospital following an ED visit (aOR 0.72, CI 0.72-0.72; aOR 0.97, CI 0.97-0.97). Blacks and Hispanics also experienced significantly longer wait times and overall visits as compared to whites. Conclusions: Black and Hispanic children faced disparities in emergency care across multiple dimensions of emergency care when compared to non-Hispanic white children, while Asian children did not demonstrate such patterns. Further research is needed to understand the underlying causes and long-term health consequences of these divergent patterns of racial disparities in ED care within an increasingly racially diverse cohort of younger Americans.

Dataset Information

The politics hypothesis and racial disparities in infants' health in the United States.

Publications

The politics hypothesis and racial disparities in infants' health in the United States.

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