“Health disparities in the U.S. are significant and often not perceived as such. At the same time, there’s a growing sense that we should have health equity and that avoidable differences and unfairness should be eliminated,” Bezold told Diverse.
Smedley said the segregated communities where many poor African-Americans and Hispanics live are places that have the worst environmental conditions, the poorest delivery of social services, the fewest grocery stores and the worst public schools, thus leading to the poor health outcomes for residents in those areas.
“Segregation is associated with poor cognitive, health and life outcomes. This kind of segregation can set people up for poor health.” Smedley told the discussion audience.
