Blog Third more widgets Blog Why are Black mothers more likely than others to die within a year of giving birth? new Missed PSA Screenings Fuel Prostate Cancer Gap for Black Men new Syphilis Surge Hits American Indian and Black Communities Hardest Why are Black mothers more likely than others to die within a year of giving birth? Blog By Disparity MattersSeptember 18, 2025 Read More Why are Black mothers more likely than others to die within a year of giving birth? Missed PSA Screenings Fuel Prostate Cancer Gap for Black Men Prostate cancer exacts a heavier toll on Black…
Author: Disparity Matters
When Congress passed the Dawes Act in 1887, the promise was independence and prosperity for Native Americans through private land ownership. Instead, the policy stripped away two-thirds of tribal lands, forced assimilation, and brought a devastating rise in death rates.New Stanford research shows mortality among Native Americans surged by roughly 20% after allotment began. By the mid-1930s, white Americans lived to an average age of 65, while Native Americans’ life expectancy was just 52. Child mortality proved especially stark. In 1900, Native mothers were already more likely to lose a child than white mothers by 12 percentage points. Allotment increased…
New research has shed light on the surprising risk of lung cancer among Asian women who have never smoked—a group almost entirely excluded from current screening guidelines. The Female Asian Nonsmoker Screening Study (FANSS) found that 1.3 out of every 1,000 Asian women with no smoking history were detected with lung cancer. Dr. Elaine Shum of NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center noted, “As a thoracic medical oncologist in New York City, we have a fair amount of Asian patients, and unfortunately, the majority of them with lung cancer have no smoking history and were initially presenting with stage IV disease.”The FANSS…
Prostate cancer exacts a heavier toll on Black men in the United States than any other demographic, a problem traced in part to limited screening and gaps in primary care. Recent analysis published in JAMA Network Open reveals that Black men are diagnosed with prostate cancer at rates 60% to 80% higher than men of other races, and mortality rates are double. Despite this alarming risk, awareness of early detection benefits remains low among both patients and many healthcare providers.Interviews in the new study illustrate how Black men often rely on their primary-care clinicians to guide screening decisions, yet many…
Despite major improvements in air quality, racial and ethnic disparities in exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) pollution have worsened in California over the past four decades. A new study using high-resolution data from 1980 to 2022 found that Hispanic or Latino individuals experienced nearly three times as many days with NO₂ levels exceeding 50µg/m³ in 2020 compared to non-Hispanic White individuals. In 1980, that gap was just 32%.Researchers used a deep learning framework to estimate daily NO₂ concentrations across California’s 1 km grids, revealing persistent and growing inequities. While overall NO₂ levels declined, relative disparities among Black, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific…
Syphilis rates in the United States have climbed nearly 80% since 2018—an epidemic revealing deep racial, regional, and behavioral health divides. Recent research using CDC surveillance data exposes especially severe disparities, with American Indian/Alaska Native individuals facing odds nearly eighteen times higher than white peers in 2022. Black Americans follow, with seven times the risk. These increases hit hardest in the Midwest and rural Southern states, notably South Dakota, where the majority of cases involve Indigenous people.Social and systemic barriers play a crucial role. Historical poverty, limited healthcare access, and systemic racism fuel persistent inequities driving infection rates. Healthcare shortages…
Wildfire smoke is becoming an escalating public health threat in America, with disadvantaged neighborhoods and communities of color bearing the worst of its impact. Recent wildfires in Canada poured hazardous smoke into the Midwest and Northeast, unleashing a wave of asthma, lung disease, and cancer risk that disproportionately harms people in low-income, urban, and segregated communities. The effects are compounded in urban “heat islands,” where lack of green space and concrete-dominated landscapes trap heat and smog, raising respiratory risks and adding to the daily dangers faced by residents.For many, standard advice to “stay indoors” or purchase air purifiers and the…
New evidence reveals a sharp reversal in prostate cancer trends across the United States, with advanced-stage diagnoses climbing rapidly and survival gains stalling—issues that hit Black men hardest. According to the American Cancer Society, the rate of new prostate cancer cases has increased 3% annually from 2014 to 2021, with advanced-stage disease rising 4.6% to 4.8% each year. Meanwhile, deaths have declined by just 0.6% annually in the last decade, a marked slowdown from previous decades.Racial disparities stand out. Black men experience the highest age-adjusted rate of new diagnoses—191.5 per 100,000 compared to 118.3 for all races combined—and the youngest…
Daily life is changed dramatically for people with vitiligo, especially those with darker skin tones, according to recent findings from the VALIANT study. The condition exacts a much greater toll on emotional and mental health, with patients of color describing higher rates of anxiety, depression, and reduced quality of life compared to those with fairer skin. Researchers who surveyed over 3,500 people from 17 countries found that “patients with types V and VI on the Fitzpatrick skin type scale expressed considerably higher rates of burden compared with all other Fitzpatrick skin tones.”The reason may be that depigmented areas stand out…
A new study has revealed that Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities face the highest risk of ischemic stroke in the United States—far surpassing other racial and ethnic groups. The study, led by Dr. Fadar O. Otite and published in Neurology, analyzed six years of hospital data from Florida, Georgia, Maryland, and New York. The findings are stark: Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders experienced 591 strokes per 100,000 people. That’s more than double the rate for Black individuals (292), over three times the rate for white individuals (180), and nearly six times the rate for Asian individuals (108). Even after…