Joined by Rashon Lane, Ph.D., MA, senior health equity scientist at Sutter Health's Center for Health Systems Research. American Managed Care Journal® Interview before presentation at Value-Based Medicine Institute® Event hosted by Sutter Health held in San Francisco, California.
In addition to sharing research on disparities and inequalities in the cardiometabolic field, she also addressed “how we need to think differently about how we intervene in disparities.”
transcript
Can you share the key takeaways from your presentation: Equitable treatment across the lifespan in cardiometabolic health?
What I really wanted to talk about is how we think about research and science and the prevention of cardiometabolic disease, especially thinking about what's going on from a very descriptive perspective, but also thinking about it from a very descriptive perspective. how it continues and why It happens especially in certain racial groups. I focus on that because when we think about where the disparities are, we often think about how racial and ethnic minority communities have the greatest disparities. And that's reflected not just across the United States, but in the state of California, within our health system, at Sutter Health, and across our locations.
So for me, it's very important to think through thoroughly that not only are these things happening, but that they're happening for a reason. And the way we intervene in those problems is that we have to keep in mind what root causes we're addressing to fully resolve the problem. This means that in addition to understanding medications and understanding access to care, there are issues within an individual's community, within society, and within policy that impact an individual's cardiovascular and cardiometabolic health. It means to do it.
Can you discuss the causes and challenges that contribute to inequities in metabolic health care?
When thinking about causes and fundamental factors, I think we need to think about what is often referred to as “ism” in the social sciences. In other words, classism, racism, heterosexism, and gender discrimination influence an individual's lived experience. When thinking about this, you can also think from a cross-cutting perspective. That is, how someone's identity is affected by multiple systems of oppression. So when we talk about society and communities, we're talking about policies and laws, including things like redlining, gentrification, housing insecurity, food insecurity, impacts on personal health. It may also include policies that provide for.
What we know about health and healthcare is that up to 80% of someone's health is outside of the healthcare system. So when we think about social determinants of health and structural determinants of health, these are social. We have to take into account things like racism and someone's experiences not just within the health care system, but outside of the health care system. These lived experiences all influence how you access care, what care is provided to you, what experiences you have, and what quality of care you experience. .
You can also think more broadly about how this affects your health from a metabolic perspective. What we know from this study is that people who experience more stress, which is associated with higher cortisol levels and higher allostatic load, are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease, and these are differentially It is possible that this may also be due to the experience of self-sufficiency and principles. I spoke to
