Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Racism: a fundamental driver of racial disparities in health-care quality

  • Comment
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Disease Primers

View current issue Sign up to alerts

Racial disparities in health-care access, quality and outcomes are pervasive and persistent. Racism is a fundamental driver of racial disparities. Individuals and institutions in the health-care system must prioritize addressing racism as their professional responsibility through training, support and inclusion.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

References

  1. 2018 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report. AHRQ. https://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/nhqrdr/nhqdr18/index.html (2019).

  2. Smith, K. A., Gehricke, J.-G., Iadarola, S., Wolfe, A. & Kuhlthau, K. A. Disparities in service use among children with autism: a systematic review. Pediatrics 145, S35–S46 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Singh, J. A., Lu, X., Rosenthal, G. E., Ibrahim, S. & Cram, P. Racial disparities in knee and hip total joint arthroplasty: an 18-year analysis of national Medicare data. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 73, 2107–2115 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Lam, M. B. et al. Changes in racial disparities in mortality after cancer surgery in the US, 2007-2016. JAMA Netw. Open 3, e2027415 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Mateo, C. M. & Williams, D. R. Addressing bias & reducing discrimination: the professional responsibility of healthcare providers. Acad. Med. 95, S5–S10 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Williams, D. R., Mohammed, S. A., Leavell, J. & Collins, C. Race, socioeconomic status and health: complexities, ongoing challenges and research opportunities. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 1186, 69–101 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Mateo, C. M. & Williams, D. R. More than words: a vision to address bias and reduce discrimination in the health professions learning environment. Acad. Med. 95, S169–S177.

  8. Williams, D. R., Lawrence, J. A. & Davis, B. A. Racism and health: evidence and needed research. Annu. Rev. Public Health. 40, 105–125 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. White, K., Haas, J. S. & Williams, D. R. Elucidating the role of place in health care disparities: the example of racial/ethnic residential segregation. Health Serv Res. 43, 1278–1299 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Boyd, R. W., Lindo, E. G., Weeks, L. D. & McLemore, M. R. On racism: a new standard for publishing on racial health inequities. Health Affairs Blog. https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200630.939347/full/ (2020).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David R. Williams.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mateo, C.M., Williams, D.R. Racism: a fundamental driver of racial disparities in health-care quality. Nat Rev Dis Primers 7, 20 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572-021-00258-1

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572-021-00258-1

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Navigation