- The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) released an updated issue brief reviewing the underlying factors contributing to maternal and infant health racial disparities. According to the brief, maternal death rates increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and racial disparities widened for Black women. The brief highlights that these disparities exist even when controlling for certain underlying social and economic factors, such as education and income, substantiating that structural inequities, systemic racism, and discrimination are primary drivers for maternal and infant health. While efforts to expand access to coverage and care, improve diversity the health care workforce, and enhance data collection and reporting have helped bring more awareness to the disparities, more needs to be done to address structural inequities and systemic racism. (Brief here)
November 2, 2022
Inequities and SDOH