Social and Medical Determinants of Cardiometabolic Health: The Big Picture

Abstract

<p class="Pa7">Cardiometabolic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease, account for &gt;12 million years of life lost annually among Black adults in the United States. Health disparities are geographically localized, with ~80% of health disparities occurring within ~6000 (16%) of all 38,000 US ZIP codes. Socio-economic status (SES), behavioral and environmental fac­tors (social determinants) account for ~80% of variance in health outcomes and cluster geographically. Neighborhood SES is inversely associated with prevalent diabetes and hyper­tension, and Blacks are four times more likely than Whites to live in lowest SES neighbor­hoods. In ZIP code 48235 (Detroit, 97% Black, 16.2% unemployed, income/capita $18,343, 23.6% poverty), 1082 Medicare fee-for service (FFS) beneficiaries received care for type 2 diabetes (T2D) and coronary artery disease (CAD) in 2012. Collectively, these beneficiaries had 1082 inpatient admissions and 839 emergency department visits, mean cost $27,759/beneficiary and mortality 2.7%. Nationally in 2011, 236,222 Black Medicare FFS beneficiaries had 213,715 inpatient admissions, 191,346 emergency department visits, mean cost $25,580/beneficiary and 2.4% mortality. In addition to more prevalent hypertension and T2D, Blacks appear more susceptible to clinical complications of risk fac­tors than Whites, including hypertension as a contributor to stroke. Cardiometabolic health equity in African Americans requires interven­tions on social determinants to reduce excess risk prevalence of risk factors. Social-medical interventions to promote timely access to, delivery of and adherence with evidence-based medicine are needed to counterbal­ance greater disease susceptibility. Place-based interventions on social and medical determi­nants of health could reduce the burden of life lost to cardiometabolic diseases in Blacks. <em>Ethn Dis. </em>2015;25(4):521-524; doi:10.18865/ ed.25.4.521</p>