Food Deserts and Implicit Bias

Structural racism, redlining, and class bias are the foundation that support continued food insecurity in the United States. Redlining is a discriminatory practice based in racism and bias that witholds services and resources from vulnerable neighborhoods most often filled with minorities. This redlining practice creates food deserts in which low income areas have low access to healthy food choices. In the study below, the authors — including Equity Commons Chief Equity Officer Dr. Aubrey J. Grant — looked at the impact of these food deserts on clinical outcomes in heart failure patients. Patients living in a food desert have a higher risk of repeat all-cause and heart failure specific hospitalizations. This study, published in the American Journal of Cardiology, highlights the downstream pervasive effects of structural racism and bias on clinical health outcomes in cardiovascular disease. Click here to read the full study: Relation of Living in a “Food Desert” To Recurrent Hospitalizations in Patients With Heart Failure.