April is National Minority Health Month, a time to raise awareness about how people from racial and ethnic minority groups all too often bear a higher burden of illness and premature death. While people of color (POC) make up more than 40% of the country’s population, white people continue to have better outcomes and lower incidences of disease and mortality across almost every measure. African Americans are more than twice as likely to die from diabetes as white people, have higher rates of heart disease, and have the highest mortality rate for all cancers combined compared with any other racial and ethnic group. Communities of color also suffered disproportionately during the Covid-19 pandemic, and were on average twice as likely to die than their white counterparts.
The Department of Population Health at NYU Langone is dedicated to reducing health disparities within minority communities and advancing health equity for all. Learn more about a variety of initiatives aimed at reducing health disparities led by the following leaders:
- In the U.S., more than 40 percent of Black men and women are living with high blood pressure—the highest rate in the country. Gbenga Ogedegbe, MD, MPH, professor of Population Health and Medicine and director of the Institute for Excellence in Health Equity can address the reasons behind racial inequities in cardiovascular disease and offer solutions to reduce these disparities in Black communities. Dr. Ogedegbe leads a federal initiative funded by the American Heart Association called the RESTORE network, that partners with Black communities across the U.S. to reduce negative impacts of social determinants of health on blood pressure. Dr. Joseph Ravenell, associate professor in the Department of Population Health is leading a project for RESTORE that will use community health workers to screen Black men for hypertension in 30 barbershops, while also providing lifestyle counseling and linking them to care.
- South Asian community have a greater than average risk for cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and diabetes—even at lower body weights and at younger ages compared to White people and other racial/ethnic groups. They are four times more likely to suffer from diabetes and heart disease than the general population. They also often face social and cultural barriers to managing chronic diseases and accessing healthcare. Nadia Islam, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Population Health and associate director of the Institute for Excellence in Health Equity can join a Community Health Worker to discuss how she and her team are working with members of NYC’s South Asian community to reduce hypertension and diabetes. Dr. Islam’s work was recently profiled in USA Today.
- In order to be able to identify and reduce health disparities, there needs to be better collection of high quality race/ethnicity data. For example, the Asian American and Pacific Islander community more than 30 different subgroups from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and languages yet they are among the most understudied racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. Because data that is reported on Asian Americans is often aggregated, this masks disparities in the burden of disease, mental health, poverty and crime that subgroups within the AAPI community face. Stella Yi, PhD, MPH, associate professor in the Department of Population Health, is a tireless advocate for data disaggregation and a chief collaborator with NYC officials to collect this data on behalf of NYU Langone and citywide. She can address the importance of data collection for minority groups, and the impact it can have on improving health outcomes.
- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey of more than 400,000 Americans, 43.5% of Black Americans reported having trouble sleeping, compared with 30.7% of white respondents. Natasha Williams, EdD, MPH, associate professor in the Department of Population Health and Institute for Excellence in Health Equity is an expert in sleep disparities and can offer tips on how to get a good night’s sleep, and the specific hurdles that communities of color often face with respect to sleep disruption and its impact on health and wellbeing. Dr. Williams is also part of a federally funded initiative to increase Covid testing and vaccines within NYC’s public housing community, and can address how the city’s Black community has suffered disproportionately from the pandemic, and what needs to change to prevent such stark disparities from occurring during future disease outbreaks and pandemics.