Here’s the latest selection of research and updates related to Black women’s health:
Revealing Disparities: Health Care Workers’ Observations of Discrimination Against Patients
The Commonwealth Fund has released the results of a study on discrimination against patients in health care settings. It shows that nearly half of all health care workers have witnessed this discrimination; workers at healthcare facilities with mostly Black or Latino patients witness discrimination at higher rates; and half of healthcare workers say racism against patients is a major problem. The report includes recommendations for change.
Potential link between high maternal cortisol, unpredicted birth complications
A study in Psychoneuroendocrinology indicates that pregnant patients with higher cortisol levels also had higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression – and these higher cortisol levels were also linked to higher levels of unpredicted birth complications during pregnancy and in the early postpartum period. This has implications for the maternal mortality crisis disproportionately impacting Black women in the United States.
The Intersectionality of Depression & Racialized Trauma – A Case Study
In this video from the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, a social worker discusses how he helped a client, a Black woman, deal with depression triggered by experiences of racial trauma, including micro- and macro-aggressions in the workplace. “…She began to see her depression as part of something larger. Not a deficit, but actually as an effect, as an impact of things that were happening around her.”
A Harrowing Misdiagnosis and A Doctor’s Quest For Health Equity
Over on Science Friday, read an excerpt from Dr. Uché Blackstock’s book, Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, where she recounts a personal experience of receiving life-threatening, substandard care as a Black patient in a healthcare setting.
Changemaker for Black Women’s Health:
Dr. Shelley White-Means, Professor of Health Economics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Losing her mother to breast cancer filled Dr. White-Means with a drive to investigate the reasons why Black women have such lower breast cancer survival rates than other women. She directs a University of Tennessee research center focused on health disparities and was recently awarded a $1.5 million grant to explore “the intersectionality of race, residential segregation, and poverty as a driver of health disparities in breast cancer.” Her goal is to uncover data that helps inform more impactful policy decisions and approaches to improve the lives of Black women diagnosed with breast cancer. Dr. White-Means is passionate about her work, watch her talk more about it here.
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