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According to a study by the National Academy of Sciences published Monday, August 17, black babies are at greater risk of death when treated by white doctors.
In the United States, black newborns are three times more likely to survive childbirth if they are treated by black doctors, in contrast, they are three times more likely to die when they are cared for. by white doctors. This is what this study by researchers at George Mason University reveals for the journal "National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America" published this Monday, August 17, based on data from 1.8 million births in the middle. hospital in Florida between 1992 and 2015.
For example, the death rate for black newborns would have decreased from 39% to 58% when they were cared for at birth by black doctors. An alarming finding that highlights racial disparities in human health from the first hours of life. For white children, the baby's skin color had no effect on the death rate. "It is striking that these effects seem to manifest themselves more strongly in the more complicated cases and when hospitals deliver more black infants", wrote the authors. "The results suggest black doctors outperform their white colleagues when caring for black newborns."
Lack of awareness?
This study is not the first to warn of the dangers of infant mortality among black children. In 2019, the Office of Minority Heath under the US Department of Health and Human Services reported that the death rate for black children was 2-3 times that of white children. In addition, a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in June 2020 found that black infants were twice as likely to die as white infants.
To stem this phenomenon, the authors of the study wished to alert healthcare workers. "This work justifies that hospitals and other healthcare organizations invest in efforts to reduce these prejudices and explore their link with institutional racism […] Reducing racial disparities in neonatal mortality will also require sensitizing doctors, nurses and hospital administrators at the prevalence of racial and ethnic disparities ", added the researchers.