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HSRI research featured in New England Journal of Medicine

September 19, 2012

HSRI member Professor Jan Wallander's research on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities among Fifth-Graders was published last month in top-level medical journal The New England Journal of Medicine. This multi-center, collaborative team project began in 2000 and was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

Prof. Wallander and his team studied 5119 public-school fifth-graders and their parents in three metropolitan areas in the United States and examined differences among black, Latino, and white children on a wide range of health-related issues, from witnessing and perpretation of violence, substance use and terrorism worries, to exercise, obesity, and psychological and physical quality of life.

 

Results showed significant differences between black children and white children for all 16 of the measures examined and between Latino children and white children for 12 of 16 measures - The family’s income and education resources and the child’s school were the most substantial mediators of racial and ethnic disparities.

 

The team found that harmful health behaviors, experiences, and outcomes were more common among black children and Latino children than among white children. Adjustment for socioeconomic status and the child’s school substantially reduced most of these differences. Interventions that address potentially detrimental consequences of low socioeconomic status and adverse school environments may help reduce racial and ethnic differences in child health.

 

Read the paper on the NEJM web site or download a PDF (270K)