There is a higher prevalence of diabetes in neighborhoods that experienced historic residential redlining and where contemporary structural racism persists, according to a new study led by Leonard E. Egede, the Charles and Mary Bauer Endowed Chair in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo in New York.
For their research, the authors examined data on over 15,000 U.S. census tracts in 157 counties within all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The researchers measured the contemporary structural racism of neighborhoods through the Structural Racism Effect Index, which generates a composite across nine domains of influence: built environment, criminal justice, education, employment, housing, income and/or poverty, social cohesion, transportation, and wealth.
According to their analysis, the authors found that census tracts with historic redlining, higher scores of contemporary structural racism, and higher shares of Black residents are significantly associated with higher diabetes prevalence.
