New Managed Care Findings from University of Pittsburgh Outlined (Historical Structural Racism In the Built Environment and Physical Health Among Residents of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania): Managed Care

2024 JUL 09 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Current study results on Managed Care have been published. According to news reporting originating from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Historical structural racism in the built environment contributes to health inequities, yet to date, research has almost exclusively focused on racist policy of redlining. We expand upon this conceptualization of historical structural racism by examining the potential associations of probable blockbusting, urban renewal, and proximity to displacement from freeway construction, along with redlining, to multiple contemporary health measures.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the University of Pittsburgh, “Analyses linked historical structural racism, measured continuously at the census-tract level using archival data sources, to present-day residents’ physical health measures drawn from publicly accessible records for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Outcome measures included average life expectancy and the percentage of residents reporting hypertension, stroke, coronary heart disease, smoking, insufficient sleep, sedentary behavior, and no health insurance coverage. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine separate and additive associations between structural racism and physical health measures. Redlining, probable blockbusting, and urban renewal were associated with shorter life expectancy and a higher prevalence of cardiovascular conditions, risky health behaviors, and residents lacking health insurance coverage. Probable blockbusting and urban renewal had the most consistent correlations with all 8 health measures, while freeway displacement was not reliably associated with health. Additive models explained a greater proportion of variance in health than any individual structural racism measure alone. Moreover, probable blockbusting and urban renewal accounted for relatively more variance in health compared to redlining, suggesting that research should consider these other measures in addition to redlining.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “These preliminary correlational findings underscore the importance of considering multiple aspects of historical structural racism in relation to current health inequities and serve as a starting point for additional research.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Historical Structural Racism In the Built Environment and Physical Health Among Residents of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Journal of Urban Health, 2024. Journal of Urban Health can be contacted at: Springer, One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, Ny, United States. (Springer - www.springer.com; Journal of Urban Health - http://www.springerlink.com/content/1099-3460/)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Emily J. Jones, University of Pittsburgh, Dept. of Psychology, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States. Additional authors for this research include Brianna N. Natale, Lorraine R. Blatt, Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, Portia Miller, Anna L. Marsland and Richard C. Sadler.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-024-00884-6. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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