Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Aetna Foundation Encourages Using Data to Help Tackle Healthcare Disparities
Geography is a clear determinant of health disparities for patients, as chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes hit underserved communities especially hard, Aetna Foundation leaders Garth Graham, MaryLynn Ostrowski and Alyse Sabina write in a Health Affairs blog post. "A person's ZIP code is a stronger predictor of his or her overall health than other factors, including race and genetics," the authors argue. If population-level healthcare disparities were eliminated, up to 80,000 early deaths in the United States would be prevented each year. Considering that there are many public health, policy, social and economic factors involved in health outcomes, it's imperative to study these factors at the community level....