July 18, 2023 – Black people in areas historically affected by redlining are at higher risk of heart failure than those in other areas, in line with a brand new study.
The study was published Monday within the Journal of the American Heart Association. Traffic.
“Our goal was to examine the association between redlining and the risk of heart failure among white and black Medicare beneficiaries,” the researchers wrote, calling redlining “a sign of structural racism.”
Redlining is a policy that for many years denied blacks loans and insurance to purchase homes and live in additional desirable neighborhoods. This policy began within the Nineteen Thirties and was banned within the late Sixties.
The researchers report that black adults living in zip codes affected by redlining have an 8 percent higher risk of heart failure than black people living in areas not affected by redlining.
“Among black adults living in historically restricted communities, about half of the increased risk of heart failure appeared to be due to higher levels of socioeconomic stress,” the AHA said in a press release.
According to the AHA, black people in these neighborhoods also suffer more from hypertension and kind 2 diabetes.
The researchers examined data from 800,000 Black Americans and 1.6 million non-Hispanic white adults. The subjects were enrolled in Medicare between 2014 and 2019 and were matched to zip codes across the country.
“The researchers analyzed data from more than 2.3 million residents enrolled in Medicare between 2014 and 2019 by linking them to residential zip codes across the United States,” CNN reported.
“The evaluation included 801,452 participants who identified as black adults and nearly 1.6 million participants who identified as non-Hispanic white adults.
“In contrast to black adults, the study found that white adults living in communities with high rates of redlining do not have a higher risk of heart failure.”