Black newborns 3 times more likely to die when treated by white doctors

Black newborns in the United States are more likely to die when in the care of white doctors, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have found that the chances of survival increase when black infants are cared for by black doctors.

The results are based on data from 1.8 million hospital deliveries in Florida between 1992 and 2015, the Duluth News Tribunereports. Records show that black newborns with a white doctor had a higher death rate than newborns with a black doctor.

The results were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

READ MORE: Wendy Williams calls out ex-husband about his ‘baby situation’

“We wanted to understand the relationship between physician race and patient outcomes,” said lead author of the study Aaron Sojourner, associate professor of economics at the Carlson School of Management.

Systemic Institutional Racism in Health Care

“Our results demonstrate that when newborns and the doctors treating them are of the same race, the survival rate of the newborns is significantly improved,” said Rachel Hardeman, co-author of the study. “This study is the first evidence to demonstrate the effect of doctor-patient racial concordance on the Black-White mortality gap. As we seek to close persistent racial gaps in birth outcomes, this finding is extremely important. “

The researchers found that systemic institutional racism in healthcare is primarily perpetuated by non-black healthcare professionals, as they found no risk of death for white babies born to black doctors.

“The fact that black newborns do so much better in the care of black doctors warrants further investigation by researchers and physicians into what makes the differences between top and bottom physicians different, and why black doctors consistently outperform their colleagues when treating black newborns. Sojourner said.

The study does not address how black newborns die at the hands of white doctors, but the researchers say black infant mortality averages “1,400 additional deaths per year.” CNN reports.

READ MORE: Ciara & Russell Wilson welcome baby boy

“We have long known that there are large racial disparities in neonatal mortality,” said Sojourner. “I think it’s encouraging to have found something associated with significant reductions in this penalty… It suggests that black doctors do a better job on average at caring for black newborns, and that we should learn. of them.

The authors also noted that “the results suggest that black doctors outperform their white colleagues when treating black newborns.”

They added, “Reducing racial disparities in neonatal mortality will also require educating doctors, nurses and hospital administrators about the prevalence of racial and ethnic disparities.”

Black newborns post 3 times more likely to die when treated by white medics appeared first on TheGrio.