Pediatric Care for Non-White Children is Universally Worse Across U.S.

Policy reform is urgently needed to address disparities, study authors say

From neonatal and primary care to emergency medicine and surgery, the quality of health care received by racial and minority ethnic children in the U.S. is almost universally worse compared to their white peers, according to new findings from scientists at Northwestern University, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and several other institutions. The findings reveal extensive inequities in care across pediatric specialties, including neonatal care, emergency medicine and palliative care. Overcoming these pervasive health care inequities — borne of structural racism — requires policy changes in multiple sectors of wider society, including housing, health insurance and the criminal justice system, the study authors said. The findings published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal in a two-paper series. Click here to read more.