FIX EXCLUSIVES
‘Findings suggest structural racism operates differently for white vs minoritized groups,’ researchers say
A new study which found racial minorities living in poor areas actually have a lower risk of mental health problems relating to pregnancy compared to their similarly situated white counterparts shows racism is a “complex” topic, according to the authors.
This paper, published in Social Science and Medicine, hypothesized that residing in “structurally deprived neighborhoods” would be associated with a higher risk of hospital-reported “perinatal mental disorders” for minority populations, while no such association would exist for white mothers due to systemic racism.
“Perinatal” generally refers to the time soon before a birth and up to a year after giving birth.
However, the paper’s authors found that for black, Asian, and Pacific Islander mothers, living in poorer neighborhoods was associated with a lower risk of pregnancy-related mental health problems and that the opposite was true for white mothers.
“Our findings reveal a complex association between structural racism and hospital-reported PMD,” the authors wrote.
They also suggested the “racism-related stress” of living in predominantly white neighborhoods is the cause.
Corresponding author Mahader Tamene, a researcher at the University of California Berkeley, did not respond to two emailed requests for comment in the past month about the research design and other reasons for the results.
Patrick Bradshaw, also at UC Berkeley, deferred to Tamene in response to an email from The Fix. Other co-authors did not respond to emails and voicemails sent in the past weeks.
The study used the “Index of Concentration at the Extremes,” which an expert said is “grounded in critical theory.”
Ian Kingsbury, the director of research at medical reform group Do No Harm, criticized the index, calling it “an ideologically loaded endeavor grounded in critical theory” that “supposes that race itself (in addition to income) is a measure of privilege or disadvantage.” This instrument is “unfit for serious scholarship,” he said.
Kingsbury also told The Fix via his emailed statement he was “perplexed by the assertion from the authors that it could relate [their findings] to ‘higher levels of racism-related stress’ for Black Americans who live in wealthier or predominantly non-Black areas.”
The research expert said there are some good insights in the study.
The authors speculate that the underdiagnosis of minority women explains why their original hypothesis was refuted by their findings.
The authors write that “poor quality of care in the most structurally deprived neighborhoods may also contribute to underdiagnosis, with studies showing that even when accessing care, birthing persons of color, particularly Black birthing persons, are less likely to be screened for perinatal mental illness.”
“That’s a plausible theory. But if it’s true, it’s not proof of discrimination,” Kingsbury said. “It may be the case that, for whatever reason, economically disadvantaged whites are more likely to seek care than economically disadvantaged non-whites.”
Kingsbury also said research that studies racial differences in health outcomes “could be useful if the researchers were not simply seeking to hijack findings in service of ideological objectives” but that “hijacking is the norm” when it comes to papers like this one.
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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A pregnant woman stands in a field; 2147792/Pixabay
