Health Equity Digest – June 2023: Economic Burden of Health Disparities & New Mammogram Guidelines and the Need for Individual Risk Assessments
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Economic Burden of Health Disparities
The economic burden of health disparities in the United States reached $451 billion in 2018, a 41% increase from the previous estimate of $320 billion in 2014, according to a recent study funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The highest burden of health disparities fell on the Black/African American population (69%) due to the level of premature mortality. The burden of health disparities was also highest among adults with a high school diploma or GED (61%), followed closely by adults with less than a high school diploma or GED (26%), and adults with some college (16%). To reduce the burden of health disparities, researchers noted that investments need to be made that address the structural contributors to those inequities.
New research published in JAMA explores the toll of premature Black deaths in America since 1999, finding that more than 1.6 million excess deaths have occurred in Black Americans, equating to 80 million years of lost life. This death toll has been linked to a number of socioeconomic factors, such as access to healthy food, stable housing, quality health care and economic opportunity, rather than biological factors. The article also discusses the economic burden of health disparities on non-white racial and ethnic groups, which amounted to over $400 billion in 2018.
New Mammogram Guidelines and the Need for Individual Risk Assessments
If you're 40, it's time to start mammograms, according to new guidelines. New draft recommendations from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force urges all people assigned female at birth of average risk to be screened for breast cancer every other year, beginning at age 40. This recommendation is informed by new evidence examining breast cancer incidence in younger women. Prior guidance encouraged patients to have a conversation with their healthcare provider about their risks and use that to determine when to begin receiving mammograms, with age 50 as the general suggestion.
“We need to move in the direction of individualized risk assessment to inform us on who needs to be screened when and how often,” says Dr. Sara Horton, MD—Executive Director of Access and Diversity at Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative. “It is obvious that there is something that is happening in the Black population (be it genetic, environmental, etc.) that is causing more of our women to be diagnosed with breast cancers at an earlier age,” from the LinkedIn article, New USPSTF Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines Are NOT For Black Women!
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