Redlining — a longstanding banking practice that blocked people of color from getting mortgages — was officially abolished in 1968, but its legacy continues to harm communities of color. Prior studies have found that living in these historically redlined neighborhoods has significant long-term effects on residents’ health and well-being.
A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine has found yet another health disparity affecting these communities: people with HIV who live in historically redlined neighborhoods are less likely to receive timely and effective HIV treatments.
The study authors examined data regarding 1,132 New Orleans residents who were diagnosed with HIV between 2011 and 2019. Roughly 62 percent of these New Orleanians lived in a historically redlined neighborhood, 14.6 percent of whom lived in communities that were gentrifying. Among those included in the study, Black residents were more likely to live in redlined neighborhoods than non-redlined areas.
According to their analysis, the authors found that individuals who lived in redlined neighborhoods experienced an average 15 percent delay in receiving viral repression, an essential treatment that can stop the disease from spreading. Even when accounting for a neighborhood’s contemporary level of gentrification, individuals in historically redlined neighborhoods experienced longer delays in receiving viral suppression treatment. The authors believe these findings provide evidence of the enduring effects of systemic racism on present-day communities of color.
The study was led by Tulane University in New Orleans, in partnership with scholars from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Louisiana Department of Health, and Wake Forest University in Winaton-Salem, North Carolina.
