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Thursday, August 4, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS
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FAIRY DUST
Low-income groups
at elevated risk for
premature death
Better management
of chronic diseases
may not explain
racial discrepancy
By ALEXA ST.JOHN
Daily Staff Reporter
About 80 percent of older
adults have one chronic disease,
according
to
the
National
Council on Aging. Additionally,
95 percent of health care costs
for those older adults in the
United States can be attributed
to chronic diseases.
In his recent study at the
University of Michigan, Shervin
Assari, a psychiatric research
investigator, found that, among
individuals
with
a
chronic
disease, African Americans die
earlier on average than white
people. For him, the question
remained: what role does chronic
health conditions play in these
earlier death rates?
While it was clear to Assari
racial and socioeconomic factors
influence premature death in the
United States, he wanted to look
into whether these factors have
an effect on mortality altogether,
or if one factor explains the
effect of the other.
The study, published in the
Journal of Racial and Ethnic
Health Disparities, used data
from the Americans’ Changing
Lives Study — a nationally
representative
longitudinal
study following 3,361 white and
Black adults 25 years of age and
older in the United States. With
this dataset, Assari assessed
multiple
measures,
including
demographics,
socioeconomic
status, race, number of chronic
medical conditions and mortality
to establish why Black people die
earlier than white people.
Behaviors that contribute to
contracting these chronic health
diseases include a lack of physical
activity,
smoking
cigarettes,
excessive drinking and poor
dietary habits, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Assari discovered that, while
the number of chronic medical
conditions mediate the effect of
race on mortality, the same may
not be for the effects of social
class.
“The mechanism by which
race influences mortality may
have some differences from the
mechanism that education does
the same thing,” Assari said.
Assari found that, if chronic
medical conditions — such as
obesity, diabetes, heart disease
and cancer — are the reason that
Black people die earlier than
white people, the best solution
would be to improve medical
care so as to reduce Black deaths
by chronic disease.
“If you can help Blacks avoid
chronic conditions, you have
succeeded in undoing the effects
of race on mortality,” Assari said.
“The only thing you need to do
to undo the effects of race on
mortality is to help them prevent
chronic
disease
or
improve
care of chronic disease and
management of chronic disease
so that that doesn’t kill them
more than whites.”
This is not, however, the case
for social class.
According to Assari, poor
socioeconomic
status
has
been linked to many chronic
conditions, along with racial
status.
Yet
chronic
diseases
alone do not explain how social
class determines these earlier
instances of death. The number
of chronic medical conditions
only
partially
mediates
the
effects of social class, implying
other factors must be involved.
Assari said beside a number
of chronic medical conditions,
education
or
socioeconomic
status, the type of chronic
medical condition or mental
health status could play a role in
the risk of premature death.
“(Prevention or management
of chronic disease) is not the only
See PREMATURE, Page 9
LAURA MEYER/Daily
State representative Yousef Rabhi speaks at his watch party following his win
on Tuesday.
LOOKING AHE AD
RESEARCH