RACE AND HIGHLY PREVENTABLE MORTALITY: AN EXPLORATION OF ASSOCIATED FACTORS AND COMMUNITIES DETERMINED TO LIVE

Sandte Stanley

doi:10.7273/000007916

It is well established that mortality disparities within the United States exist by gender and race. Explorations of mortality posit that social and place-based determinants of health are highly associated with predicting the outcomes of these disparities. Less frequently studied are highly preventable causes of death and their association between established determinants of mortality such as education, poverty, and place of residence at death and how they look across racial groups and gender within a single state and how groups work to combat highly preventable diseases in their own communities. I utilize Washington state death records from 2011-2018 to estimate the odds of dying from highly preventable causes of death for non-Hispanic whites, Black people, Natives, Asians, and Latin(o)s controlling for sociodemographic (e.g., age, marital status, gender, and place-based factors at the census tract level and to identify the most vulnerable group to create an inventory of programs that address diabetes (a highly preventable cause of death) within Native communities in Washington state. I conducted regression analyses that considered social and place-based factors in combination with racial identity as predictors of disparities in dying from highly preventable deaths and discovered bleak findings for Natives. Results revealed that Natives with less than a high school education have a .70 probability of dying from a highly preventable cause of death. Additionally, Natives living in rural areas and who reside in high-poverty census tracts experience over .70 probability of dying from a highly preventable cause of death. No significant gender-specific findings by race were found. An inventory of diabetes programming in the Indian country reveals that Natives have implemented methods to address social and place-based predictors of dying from diabetes by providing free nutritional foods through gardening and cooking activities, vouching for medical services, and physical activity programming. Discussions must continue to explore how factors that are associated with highly preventable mortality can be addressed at the macro-level. Any efforts to address highly preventable causes of death disparities by researchers should first include an assessment of how priority communities are already tackling the problem because the lived experience is important.

RACE AND HIGHLY PREVENTABLE MORTALITY: AN EXPLORATION OF ASSOCIATED FACTORS AND COMMUNITIES DETERMINED TO LIVE

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