Blacks in gated neighborhoods face higher risks of heart failure

CNN
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Black adults living in ZIP codes historically impacted by redlining have an 8% higher risk of developing heart failure than black adults in unmarked areas, a study published Monday in the American Heart Association’s scientific journal Circulation.

In the early 20th century, American banks routinely engaged in a racist lending practice known as redlining, which denied loans and insurance to people of color seeking to buy homes outside undesirable areas of cities. The practice began in the 1930s, amplifying segregation, and was finally banned in the late 1960s.

“Among black adults living in historically bounded communities, about half of the excess risk of heart failure appears to be explained by higher levels of socioeconomic distress,” the AHA said in a press release.

According to previous AHA research, increased risk of hypertension and type 2 diabetes are among other diseases that disproportionately affect black residents of these neighborhoods.

“Although discriminatory housing policies were effectively outlawed nearly half a century ago, the relationship between historic practices of redlining and people’s health today gives us unique insight into how policies may still exert their effects on the health of many communities,” says co-author Dr. Shreya Rao, cardiologist and assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, said in a statement.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 2.3 million residents enrolled in Medicare between 2014 and 2019 by linking them to residential ZIP codes across the United States. The analysis included 801,452 participants who identified as black adults and nearly 1.6 million participants who identified as non-Hispanic white adults.

Unlike black adults, the study found that white adults living in communities with a high proportion of redlining did not have a higher risk of heart failure.

“These results show us the harm that discriminatory and racist housing policies have had on generations of black adults and suggest the long-term impact of these policies on heart health disparities,” said Dr Ambarish. Pandey, another co-author and assistant professor. in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center.