April is National Minority Health Month
April is National Minority Health Month and this year, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) and its partners are highlighting the important role individuals and organizations can play in helping to reduce health disparities and improve the health of racial and ethnic minority and American Indian/Alaska Native communities.
The theme for this year’s National Minority Health Month is Give Your Community a Boost! The theme focuses on the continued importance of COVID-19 vaccination, including boosters, as one of the strongest tools we can use to protect communities from COVID-19, which has disproportionately affected communities of color.
CDC data show that some racial and ethnic minority groups — particularly Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and American Indian or Alaska Native people are at increased risk of getting sick, having a more severe illness, and dying from COVID-19. Give Your Community a Boost! also supports the many other efforts happening in communities across the country to advance health equity.
Why are some groups disproportionately affected by COVID-19?
Conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, play, and worship affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes, such as COVID-19 infection, severe illness, and death. These conditions are known as social determinants of health. Long-standing systemic health and social inequities have put many people from racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19.
An important source of data for laboratory-confirmed COVID-19-associated hospitalizations is CDC’s COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET). COVID-NET provides demographic and clinical information on COVID-19-associated hospitalizations, including age group, sex, race and ethnicity, underlying health conditions, interventions, and outcomes. COVID-NET comprises 99 counties in the 14 states participating in the Emerging Infections Program and the Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Project; covering approximately 10% of the U.S. population. The age-adjusted hospitalization rates and distribution of characteristics among people hospitalized, including underlying medical conditions and outcomes, by race and ethnicity can be used to identify racial and ethnic disparities and inform potential strategies to reduce disparities.
What are social determinants of health?
Social determinants of health are conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes. Discrimination, healthcare access and use, occupation, housing, and wealth gaps, among others, are associated with more COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in areas where racial and ethnic minority groups live, learn, work, play, and worship.
These factors have also contributed to higher rates of some medical conditions that increase one’s risk of severe illness from COVID-19. In addition, community strategies to slow the spread of the virus might cause unintentional harm such as lost wages, reduced access to services, and increased stress, for some racial and ethnic minority groups.
Healthy People 2030 uses a place-based framework that outlines five key areas:
Healthcare Access and Quality
About 1 in 10 people in the United States don’t have health insurance. People without insurance are less likely to have a primary care provider, and they may not be able to afford the health care services and medications they need. Strategies to increase insurance coverage rates are critical for making sure more people get important health care services, like preventive care and treatment for chronic illnesses.
Sometimes people don’t get recommended health care services, like cancer screenings, because they don’t have a primary care provider. Other times, it’s because they live too far away from health care providers who offer them. Interventions to increase access to health care professionals and improve communication — in person or remotely — can help more people get the care they need.
Education Access and Quality
People with higher levels of education are more likely to be healthier and live longer. Healthy People 2030 focuses on providing high-quality educational opportunities for children and adolescents — and on helping them do well in school.
Children from low-income families, children with disabilities, and children who routinely experience forms of social discrimination — like bullying — are more likely to struggle with math and reading. They’re also less likely to graduate from high school or go to college. This means they’re less likely to get safe, high-paying jobs and more likely to have health problems like heart disease, diabetes, and depression.
In addition, some children live in places with poorly performing schools, and many families can’t afford to send their children to college. The stress of living in poverty can also affect children’s brain development, making it harder for them to do well in school. Interventions to help children and adolescents do well in school and help families pay for college can have long-term health benefits.
Social and Community Context
People’s relationships and interactions with family, friends, co-workers, and community members can have a major impact on their health and well-being. Healthy People 2030 focuses on helping people get the social support they need in the places where they live, work, learn, and play.
Many people face challenges and dangers they can’t control — like unsafe neighborhoods, discrimination, or trouble affording the things they need. This can have a negative impact on health and safety throughout life.
Positive relationships at home, at work, and in the community can help reduce these negative impacts. But some people — like children whose parents are in jail and adolescents who are bullied — often don’t get support from loved ones or others. Interventions to help people get the social and community support they need are critical for improving health and well-being.
Economic Stability
In the United States alone, 1 in 10 people live in poverty, and many people can’t afford things like healthy foods, health care, and housing. Healthy People 2030 focuses on helping more people achieve economic stability.
People with steady employment are less likely to live in poverty and more likely to be healthy, but many people have trouble finding and keeping a job. People with disabilities, injuries, or conditions like arthritis may be especially limited in their ability to work. In addition, many people with steady work still don’t earn enough to afford the things they need to stay healthy.
Employment programs, career counseling, and high-quality child care opportunities can help more people find and keep jobs. In addition, policies to help people pay for food, housing, health care, and education can reduce poverty and improve health and well-being.
Neighborhood and Built Environment
The neighborhoods people live in have a major impact on their health and wellbeing. Many people in the United States live in neighborhoods with high rates of violence, unsafe air or water, and other health and safety risks. Racial/ethnic minorities and people with low incomes are more likely to live in places with these risks. In addition, some people are exposed to things at work that can harm their health, like secondhand smoke or loud noises.
Interventions and policy changes at the local, state, and federal level can help reduce these health and safety risks and promote health. For example, providing opportunities for people to walk and bike in their communities — like by adding sidewalks and bike lanes — can increase safety and help improve health and quality of life.
Strategies to help increase COVID-19 vaccine confidence
Various strategies can help communities increase COVID-19 vaccine confidence and advance vaccine equity, but some may be particularly helpful when addressing individuals with mistrust.
- Focusing on effective messaging delivered by trusted messengers (offering recommendations provided by trusted healthcare professionals).
- Using tactics to address misinformation and hesitancy within the population of focus.
- Tailoring strategies for the specific community.
- Building vaccine confidence to help eliminate stigmas associated with receiving COVID-19 vaccination while also fostering relationships between community members and public health entities.
Address Community Concerns
Use clear, easy-to-read, transparent, and consistent information that addresses specific misinformation or perceived concerns such as vaccine side effects or risks (including boosters), newness and effectiveness of vaccines, and the rapidly changing information and protocols on mask use and guidance for gatherings.
Partner with Trusted Messengers
rusted messengers are key to the delivery of critical information for communities to continue advocating for positive change regarding COVID-19 vaccine efforts. Ensure that people whose images are included in materials and leading COVID-19 outreach efforts look like, are known to, and can effectively collect input from communities where the outreach initiatives are occurring. Furthermore, engage trusted faith leaders or vaccine workers who share the same race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and cultural/religious beliefs as the community to share information, promote the benefits of immunization, administer vaccines, and be present at vaccination sites.
Develop Culturally Relevant Materials
Arts and cultural engagement can generate community demand for COVID-19 vaccines by making vaccination an accessible and socially supported choice. Provide messaging and tone that is culturally relevant and in predominant languages spoken in the community.
More talking points for National Health Minority Month
Experiences with discrimination and racism can contribute to the mistrust of the healthcare system among racial and ethnic minority groups, leading to mistrust of factual information on vaccines and boosters.
Use these talking points to help spread the facts on COVID-19 and health disparities to your communities and organizations:
- Longstanding systemic health and social inequities have put many people from racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk of getting COVID-19 or experiencing severe illness, regardless of age. Visit the COVID Data Tracker’s Health Equity page for data related to specific populations and place-based groups.
- CDC data show that some racial and ethnic minority groups—particularly Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and American Indian or Alaska Native people are disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
- COVID-19 has affected racial and ethnic minority groups, and people who live in rural areas by causing more severe illness and death than in other groups because of low income, discrimination, and lack of healthcare access.
- CDC created a COVID-19 Health Equity Strategy with the following guiding principles: reduce health disparities; use data-driven approaches; foster meaningful engagement with community institutions and diverse leaders; lead culturally responsive outreach programs; and reduce stigma, including the stigma associated with race and ethnicity.
- More people from some racial and ethnic minority groups work in essential work settings, such as healthcare facilities, farms, factories, grocery stores, public transportation, and other service-related jobs than other groups of people. Some people who work in these settings have more chances to be exposed to COVID-19.
Achieving health equity requires valuing everyone equally with focused and ongoing efforts to address avoidable inequities, historical and contemporary injustices, and the elimination of disparities in health and healthcare. The population health impact of COVID-19 has exposed longstanding inequities that have systematically undermined the physical, social, economic, and emotional health of racial and ethnic minority populations and other population groups that are bearing a disproportionate burden of COVID-19.
We all have a part in helping to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and promoting fair access to health. To do this, we have to work together to ensure that people have the resources to maintain and manage their physical and mental health in ways that fit the communities where people live, learn, work, play, and worship. Below are additional considerations for community leaders supporting individuals who experience discrimination in healthcare systems.
Sources:
https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/nmhm/