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by chimeracoder 2841 days ago
> How does that make it meaningless? Yes, certain segments of the population are even more underserved than others, but that’s just more evidence for the fact that we’re doing a crap job of keeping people healthy.

Because by not breaking out the single largest compounding factor, it's masking the real problem underlying this issue: there's a massive disparity in outcomes for people of different races.
1 comments
forkandwait 2841 days ago
Perhaps poverty, access to healthcare, or education is a bigger factor? Do you have evidence race is the "real problem"?

In Washington state, the counties with the worst mortality are 95% white, with 5% native (Grays Harbor and Okanagan)

(poverty, education, race are of course very correlated)

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ethanwillis 2841 days ago
Race in fact does play a big factor in health disparities. For example, African Americans are at much higher risk for heart health related issues. And when heart disease is the number 1 killer of people of all races.. well that just doesn't bode well for the life expectancy of AA.

And it's not just because minority populations have worse access to healthcare. There are in fact genetic components that predispose different races to different diseases.

Japanese people, Glaucoma. AA, heart disease. White people, Celiac.

Basically there's multiple components: Race, Healthcare access, Poverty, Education, Local Cultural proclivities for: diet, exercise, etc.

https://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/26/2/247.full

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chimeracoder 2841 days ago
> Perhaps poverty, access to healthcare, or education is a bigger factor? Do you have evidence race is the "real problem"?

You're asking if I have evidence that the IHS is an absolute disaster, which impacts mortality rates and life expectancy?

Yes, that's a problem that's been very well-documented for the past seventy years.

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