Black Brooklyn Health Disparities: Challenges and Opportunities

By Mary Alice MillerBlack people are resilient. We work, love, create, build, and advocate. We can only do these things with good health. Maintaining good health is a challenge due to racial disparities in health care and opportunities.The NYC Dept. of Health defines health disparities as differences in health outcomes between groups that reflect social inequalities. These disparities result in more avoidable illnesses and deaths in one group as opposed to another. Factors that influence health disparities include social and physical environmental conditions, opportunities, and stressors that impact health, limited access to primary and preventative care, and the quality of care received.Covid-19 exposed health disparities in Black Brooklyn. However, there are other glaring disparities. Residents of the poorest NYC neighborhoods experience more premature deaths than other New Yorkers. The Center for Black Equity recently released a report calling vaping, including non-tobacco, flavored e-cigarettes, a tobacco harm reduction tool and attributes the downward trend in adult smoking rates over the past decade to vaping. The shift from cigarette smoking to vaping generated healthcare savings due to reduced lung cancer rates and increased economic growth.“Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., and its principal victims are marginalized populations,”...