Document Actions
Labeling death: The link between race, hypertension prevalence and hypertension-related death
Quincy Thomas Stewart, Indiana University, Department of Sociology
| What | MPC Seminar Series |
|---|---|
| When |
October 06, 2008 12:15 PM
October 06, 2008 01:15 PM
October 06, 2008 from 12:15 pm to 01:15 pm |
| Where | MPC Seminar Room, 50 Willey Hall |
| Contact Email | mpc@umn.edu |
| Contact Phone | 612-624-8806 |
| Add event to calendar |
vCal
iCal
|
Abstract: We use data from the National Center
for Health Statistics Multiple Cause of Death File and the National Health
Interview Survey Linked Mortality File to analyze the relationship between
race, hypertension mortality probability, and various social, economic and
health-related characteristics. Our results reveal that: 1) across the adult
life course, blacks are two times more likely than whites to have hypertension
as cause of death; 2) black hypertension mortality is unrelated to group
differences in education, place of death, number of multiple-causes on death
certificate, diabetes as a related cause, and county fixed effects; and 3) the
increased odds of labeling a black death as hypertension is unrelated to
pre-existing reports of hypertension, subjective health status, BMI,
socioeconomic status, and region of occurrence.
Our results suggest the presence of statistical discrimination in cause
of death diagnoses such that health professionals erroneously use underlying
racial disparities in hypertension prevalence to inform decisions in
determining mortality from hypertension.
The National Children's Study: Design and measurement issues