Racial Issues News

November 23, 2024

Top Headlines

How Educational Attainment May Impact Memory and Dementia Risk Later in Life

Nov. 20, 2024 — Historical policies shaping educational attainment have enduring benefits for later life memory and risk of dementia, according to a new study. The study compared the differences in years of ...

Showing AI Users Diversity in Training Data Boosts Perceived Fairness and Trust

Oct. 22, 2024 — While artificial intelligence (AI) systems, such as home assistants, search engines or large language models like ChatGPT, may seem nearly omniscient, their outputs are only as good as the data on ...

Blood Pressure High for Years? Beware of Stroke Risk

July 23, 2024 — Years of high systolic blood pressure are linked to a greater risk for the two most common types of stroke. The results suggest that early diagnosis and sustained control of high blood pressure over the lifespan are critical to preventing stroke, ...

Menstrual Periods Are Arriving Earlier for Younger Generations, Especially Among Racial Minority and Lower-Income Individuals

May 29, 2024 — The average age at menarche -- the first menstrual period -- has been decreasing among younger generations in the U.S., especially those belonging to racial minorities and lower socioeconomic ...

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Barriers Prevent Everyone Enjoying Nature Equally

Oct. 25, 2024 — A major international study involving 56,968 adults, aged 18 to 99, has found that levels of nature connectedness and nature exposure are associated with several socioeconomic and demographic ...

Discrimination May Accelerate Aging

May 9, 2024 — Discrimination may speed up the biological processes of aging, according to a new ...

More Than 321,000 U.S. Children Lost a Parent to Drug Overdose from 2011 to 2021

May 8, 2024 — An estimated 321,566 children in the United States lost a parent to drug overdose from 2011 to 2021, according to a new study. The rate of children ...

Good Heart Health in Middle Age May Preserve Brain Function Among Black Women as They Age

Apr. 24, 2024 — Cognitive decline among Black women linked to poor heart health in middle ...

How a City Is Organized Can Create Less-Biased Citizens

Feb. 6, 2024 — A new study presents data and a mathematical model to explain why there is more unconscious, or implicit, racial bias in some cities than others. The study, which brings together the math of cities ...

Hiring the Most Qualified Candidate Might Be Unfair

Feb. 1, 2024 — Both liberals and conservatives are more likely to believe that merit-based hiring is unfair after learning about the impacts of socioeconomic disparities, according to a new ...

Discrimination During Pregnancy May Alter Circuits in Infants' Brains

Dec. 7, 2023 — Racial discrimination and bias are painful realities and increasingly recognized as detrimental to the health of adults and children. These stressful experiences also appear to be transmitted from ...

Cardiologists Reveal New Heart Disease Risk Calculator

Nov. 10, 2023 — The new American Heart Association PREVENTTM risk calculator estimates the 10- and 30-year risk of total cardiovascular disease for people aged 30 years and older. The calculator estimates the risk ...

Americans Will Spend Half Their Lives Taking Prescription Drugs, Study Finds

Oct. 12, 2023 — An American born in 2019 will spend a larger share of their lifetime taking prescription drugs than being in their first marriage or receiving an ...

Risk Factors for Dementia Vary by Ethnicity, Study Finds

Oct. 11, 2023 — Modifiable risk factors -- including hypertension, obesity, diabetes, low HDL cholesterol and sleep disorders -- confer a higher risk of dementia for people in some minority ethnic groups compared to ...

Troubling Spike in Severe Pregnancy-Related Complications

Nov. 22, 2024 — A new study reveals a troubling rise in severe maternal health issues and birth complications in Illinois from 2016 to 2023, closely linked to increases in chronic health conditions affecting ...

Experiences of Discrimination Linked to Postpartum Weight Retention

Nov. 11, 2024 — Researchers have been unable to explain why after giving birth, Black patients are two to three times as likely to retain or gain additional weight compared to their white counterparts, even when ...

Dramatic Drop in Marijuana Use Among U.S. Youth Over a Decade (2011 to 2021)

Oct. 28, 2024 — Using a national survey of 88,183 adolescents in grades nine to 12, findings show marijuana use declined from 23.1% in 2011 to 15.8% in 2021, with first-time use before age 13 dropping from 8.1% to ...

The Transformative Power of Movies

Oct. 21, 2024 — Docudrama can lead people to be more empathetic toward people who are stigmatized in society, a new study ...

Disparities in Sleep Health and Insomnia May Begin at a Young Age

Apr. 8, 2024 — Children and teens from racial and ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by persistent insomnia symptoms that begin in childhood and continue through young adulthood, according to a ...

Rural and Minority Dementia Patients Face Disparities in Access to Neurologists

Mar. 20, 2024 — A study of nearly 95,000 Washington state residents found that people living outside of urban areas as well as Native American and Hispanic people face longer travel distances to be seen by ...

No, an Anti-Racist Program in Schools Didn't Stress out Kids, Study Finds

Mar. 11, 2024 — A new study of how high school students respond to a program designed to increase the frequency and quality of conversations about race in school finds that the anti-racist intervention did not cause ...

Psychosocial Stressors Linked to Higher Inflammation in Black Pregnant Women

Mar. 6, 2024 — Living in neighborhoods with more white residents and greater lifetime experiences of racial discrimination are linked to increased systemic inflammation during pregnancy among Black women, according ...

Skin-Deep Resilience: Hidden Physical Health Costs for Minority Youth Overcoming Adversity

Jan. 4, 2024 — When youth thrive despite difficult circumstances, they are usually lauded for their accomplishments. However, overcoming adversity may have a hidden physiological cost, especially for minority ...

Discrimination Alters Brain-Gut 'Crosstalk,' Prompting Poor Food Choices and Increased Health Risks

Oct. 2, 2023 — People frequently exposed to racial or ethnic discrimination may be more susceptible to obesity and related health risks in part because of a stress response that changes biological processes and how ...

Ecological Theory Can Help Explain Why Segregation Persists

Sep. 27, 2023 — An ecological theory may help to explain why segregation is so widespread and persistent in US cities, according to a new article. The new way of framing segregation's endurance may provide a ...

60 Years Later, High School Quality May Have a Long-Term Impact on Cognition

May 2, 2023 — Attending a high school with a high number of teachers with graduate training was the clearest predictor of the impact of school quality on late-life cognition, researchers ...

Non-Biological Factors and Social Determinants of Health Important in Women's CVD Risk Assessment

Apr. 10, 2023 — A new scientific statement reviews research about racial and ethnic differences in cardiovascular risk factors among women in the U.S. In addition to traditional risk factors, women of ...

High Blood Pressure in Your 30s Is Associated With Worse Brain Health in Your 70s

Apr. 7, 2023 — High blood pressure in early adulthood is associated with worse brain health in late life, according to a new study. Men, compared to women, may be more vulnerable to the detrimental effects of high ...

Remember Me? Gender, Race May Make You Forgettable

Apr. 3, 2023 — Being a woman or racial minority can help someone stand out and be remembered when few others look like them. But they are more likely to be confused in settings where others share the same ...

Think You're Good at Math? Study Shows It May Be Because You Had Equitable Math Teachers

Mar. 3, 2023 — A new study finds that high school students identify more with math if they see their math teacher treating everyone in the class equitably, especially in racially diverse schools. While the ...

Racial Disparities in Childhood Adversity Linked to Brain Structural Differences in U.S. Children

Feb. 1, 2023 — A new study used MRI and survey data to identify structural differences in regions of the brain linked to threat processing in 9- and 10-year-olds that the researchers linked to disparities in ...

Feeling Loved, Optimistic or Happy as a Teen May Lead to Better Health in Adulthood

Jan. 11, 2023 — Teens who reported feeling optimism, happiness, self-esteem, belongingness and loved were more likely to reach their 20s and 30s in good cardiometabolic health compared to teens with fewer of these ...

U.S. Firearm Death Trends Revealed Over Four Decades

Dec. 14, 2022 — A new analysis of firearm death rates from 1981 to 2020 shows that the people most heavily impacted by firearm deaths were Black men and white men, and that rates of firearm-related homicides and ...

Racism Takes Its Toll on Brain and Body

Dec. 13, 2022 — Structural racism has not only psychosocial but also biological consequences. Discrimination has been shown to contribute to mental and physical disorders including obesity, depression, and ...