Birthing Racial Health Equality

Blacks have the highest infant mortality rate of any racial or ethnic group in the United States. And the disparities are stark. Black pregnant people in the U.S. experience preterm birth at rates approximately 2 times that of White pregnant people and Black infants are twice as likely to die within the first year. In this episode, we are joined by University of Minnesota health equity researchers Drs. Rachel Hardeman and Tongtan (Bert) Chantarat who are working to change that pattern and advance reproductive health equity. By exploring replicable and theoretically sound measures of structural racism, these researchers hope to reveal evidence of its harm to maternal-child health and thereby identify pathways for intervention.

References

1.     Hardeman RR, Homan PA, Chantarat T, Davis BA, Brown TH. Improving The Measurement Of Structural Racism To Achieve Antiracist Health Policy, Health Affairs. February 2022

2.     Chantarat T, Van Riper DC, Hardeman RR, Multidimensional structural racism predicts birth outcomesfor Black and White Minnesotans, Health Services Research. June 2022

3.     Multidimensional Measurement of Structural Racism: Learnings from an Interview with Dr. Tongtan (Bert) Chantarat, Evidence for Action Blog. August 2022

4.     Hardeman RR, Chantarat T, Smith ML, et al. Association of Residence in High–Police Contact Neighborhoods With Preterm Birth Among Black and White Individuals in Minneapolis, JAMA Network Open. December 2021