The February Health Affairs issue includes several overview papers about structural racism in the health care sector.
In one paper analyzing US workforce data, Janette Dill and Mignon Duffy determine that more than one in five Black women in the labor force and more than
one-third of foreign-born Black women are employed in the health care sector.
Black women overall are heavily concentrated in low-wage jobs in the long-term care sector and in hospitals, comprising 24.9 percent of licensed practical nurses and 23.0 percent of the long-term care workforce.
The authors trace these findings "to the historical legacies of sexism and racism, dating back to the division of care work in slavery and domestic service."
Through focus group discussions and interviews of Black women living in Georgia and North Carolina, Terri-Ann Thompson and coauthors noted manifestations of structural and individual racism in the reproductive health experience of Black women.
With regards to access, utilization, and quality, experiences of racism were evident across a range of reproductive health services including abortion, contraception, prenatal care, maternal care, and preventive care.
Participants in the research reported that they sought out or recommended a home birth with a midwife and doula instead of delivering at a hospital to mitigate individual experiences of racism during birthing.
Elevating Voices: Black History Month: In an October 2021 Health Affairs article, Edward Okeke and coauthors
found that the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a 22 percent relative increase in stillbirths in Nigeria and a 23 percent relative increase in newborn deaths.
Ruqaiijah Yearby Reviews Structural Racism In US Health Care Policy
Ruqaiijah Yearby from Saint Louis University joins Health Affairs'Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil to discuss how structural racism is embedded in US health policy.
Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewedjournalat the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal is available in print and online. Late-breaking
content is also found through healthaffairs.org, Health Affairs Today, and Health Affairs Sunday Update.
Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has published Health Affairs since 1981.
