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Articles on Black health disparities

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Stigma and prejudice make it difficult for Black gay men to access PrEP. Willie B. Thomas/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Half of Black gay men will be diagnosed with HIV, despite highly effective preventive treatments − why?

PrEP can reduce the risk of sexually transmitted HIV infection by 99%. Discrimination and distrust are two barriers Black gay men face in accessing this lifesaving treatment.
Maternal death rates are higher in the U.S. than in other high-income countries. Tetra Images/Getty Images

Risk of death related to pregnancy and childbirth more than doubled between 1999 and 2019 in the US, new study finds

Black women died during or soon after pregnancy at higher rates than any other racial group in every year from 1999 to 2019. American Indian and Alaska Native women had the greatest increase in risk during this period.
An increasing number of health care decisions rely on information from algorithms. Tom Werner/Digital Vision via Getty Images

Including race in clinical algorithms can both reduce and increase health inequities – it depends on what doctors use them for

Biased algorithms in health care can lead to inaccurate diagnoses and delayed treatment. Deciding which variables to include to achieve fair health outcomes depends on how you approach fairness.
The stress of experiencing high levels of community violence harms entire families. skynesher/E+ via Getty Images

Black mothers trapped in unsafe neighborhoods signal the stressful health toll of gun violence in the U.S.

Chronic stress from living with systemic racism and gun violence can lead to increased symptoms of PTSD and depression as well as elevated cortisol levels.
Black patients are more likely than other racial and ethnic groups to have a biopsy delay of 90 days or more after an abnormal mammogram. Yellow Dog Productions/The Image Bank via Getty Images

Biopsies confirm a breast cancer diagnosis after an abnormal mammogram – but structural racism may lead to lengthy delays

Early detection of breast cancer is critical to improving chances of survival. But racial and ethnic minority patients systematically have delayed diagnoses that reduce the benefits of screening.
Loneliness affects one in three people in the industrialized world, with racialized groups disproportionately bearing the burden. (Pexels/EricW)

Cancer and loneliness: How inclusion could save lives

Pluralism — the active process of inclusion — could reduce disparities in some of the most pressing health issues of our time.
Nurse Shelia Rickman participates in an after-shift demonstration on Monday, April 6, 2020, in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, after media reports of disproportionate numbers of black people dying from COVID-19 in the city. AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

COVID-19 is hitting black and poor communities the hardest, underscoring fault lines in access and care for those on margins

Blacks are dying at higher rates from COVID than whites, showing yet another example of gaps in outcomes between blacks and other groups. The cause is more sociological than biological.

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