Health Disparities

The Medical Humanities program at Washington University in St. Louis is hosting a forum Saturday on Medicine, Race, and Ethnicity in St. Louis. Scholars and doctors will discuss racism in health care in the St. Louis region, the well-being of Asian and Hispanic communities, and how activism and art can create change within the medical field.

Dr. Makeba Williams has examined the societal and medical factors that cause early-onset menopause in Black Americans.

Physicians have long believed it’s good medicine to consider race in health care. But recently, rather than perpetuate the myth that race governs how bodies function, a more nuanced approach has emerged: acknowledging that racial health disparities often reflect the effects of generations of systemic racism, such as lack of access to stable housing or nutritious food.

Three out of four leading Alzheimer's blood tests were less accurate in Black patients, putting them at risk of receiving the wrong medical treatment.

In the U.S., Black women have the highest maternal mortality rates. St. Louis-area doctors and abortion rights advocates say if Roe v. Wade is overturned and Missouri bans abortion, Black women would be at risk.

Affinia Healthcare will construct a 15,000-square-foot health center in Ferguson. The center will include family medical, pediatric, dental care and behavioral health services

BJC HealthCare, the hospital system that operates Barnes-Jewish Hospital and more than a dozen others in the St. Louis region, on Wednesday unveiled a strategic plan that aims to decrease health disparities between the city’s richest and poorest residents, particularly the gap in health outcomes for Black and white people.

Black people make up more than 35% of people on dialysis but just 13% of the U.S. population. They’re also less likely to get on the waitlist for a kidney transplant. Part of what is causing the disparity is that an algorithm doctors rely on uses race as a factor in evaluating all stages of kidney disease care.

The number of black men in St. Louis and St. Louis County who died of opioid drug overdoses increased between 2018 and 2019, even as those deaths declined…

Mortality rates are continuing to widen between black and white St. Louisans, according to new analysis presented to a Board of Aldermen committee…