Black babies are more likely to survive when treated by black doctors – US study | World news

Black babies have a greater chance of survival when the hospital doctor in charge of their care is also black, according to a new study.

In the United States, babies of color face significantly worse clinical outcomes than white babies.

Previous research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published last year shows that black babies are more than twice as likely to die before reaching their first birthday as white babies, regardless of income or the mother’s level of education.

While infant mortality has globally declined over the past century thanks to improvements in hygiene, nutrition and health care, the black-white disparity has grown.

Multiple interrelated factors that contribute to these disparities include structural and societal racism, toxic stress, and cumulative socio-economic disadvantage.

The new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the race of the attending physician also plays an important role.

Researchers looked at 1.8 million birth records in Florida hospitals from 1992 to 2015 and established the race of the doctor in charge of each newborn’s care.

When cared for by white doctors, black babies are about three times more likely to die in hospital than white newborns.

This disparity halves when black babies are cared for by a black doctor.

Strikingly, the largest decline in deaths has occurred in complex births and in hospitals that deliver relatively more black babies, suggesting that institutional factors may play a role.

The study found no statistically significant association between the risk of maternal mortality – which is also much higher for black and brunette women – and the race of the mother’s doctor.

The reason racial matching is so important in black infant mortality requires further research, but it may improve trust and communication between doctor and mother, and black doctors may be more sensitive to social risk factors. and the cumulative disadvantages that can impact newborn care, according to Brad Greenwood. , senior author from George Mason University in Virginia.

The unconscious racism of white doctors towards black women and their babies may also be at play.

For white newborns, the race of their doctor makes little difference in their chances of survival.

Despite the striking findings, black women who seek out a black doctor to minimize the risk to their babies will find it difficult as the medical staff remain disproportionately white. Only 5% of physicians are black, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The diversity

The research underscores the urgent need for greater diversity in the medical workforce, according to Greenwood.

“To the extent that research suggests that implicit stereotypes and prejudices contribute to racial disparities in health, the work also highlights the need for hospitals and other healthcare organizations to invest in efforts to reduce these prejudices. and explore their link with institutional racism, ”he added.

The results reflect the clinical findings seen by Dr. Arthur James, retired obstetrician / gynecologist and former director of the Kirwan Institute at Ohio State University for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. .

James was part of a group of black hospital obstetricians hired to care for poor uninsured patients in eastern Michigan, where in 1980 black babies died five times more than white babies. By the mid to late 1990s, the racial disparity had fallen to 1.4, despite a higher proportion of difficult births.

James said, “As black doctors, we went to the same churches, barbers, beauty salons, our kids went to the same schools… that sense of community cultivates an entirely different level of relationship and responsibility. The feeling that your supplier genuinely cared about you is important… and, in my opinion, is most easily achieved when racial alignment and a genuine relationship are present.

“Kudos to the authors for raising an important and often overlooked potential contributor to improved birth outcomes,” added James.

Overall, the United States ranks 30th among 33 OECD countries for infant mortality, with only Mexico, Turkey and Chile performing worse. A CDC report released last year found that more than 22,000 American babies died before their first birthday in 2017. Black babies died at a rate of 10.97 per 1,000 births – more than twice the rate for white, Asian or Latin newborns.