Black and Latino males twice as likely to have poor health

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Given the inequality in healthcare in the United States, it’s no surprise that some groups of people suffer far worse health outcomes than people with better resources. But if there is one group that has been especially overlooked in this equation, it’s black and Latino boys. The major factor in their poor health, according to a new report by the California Endowment, is where they live. Growing up in poor and stressful neighborhoods with limited healthcare resources leads to poor health.

According to the findings in the report:

• The odds of poor health outcomes for boys and men of color are more than two times higher than for white boys and men in California.
• Latino boys are 4.1 times more likely than white boys to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
• African-American boys are 2.5 times more likely.
• Latinos are 3.1 times more likely to have limited access to health care and 4.8 times more likely to lack health insurance.
• Asthma disproportionately affects children who live in poorer neighborhoods.
  Black young men have a homicide rate 16 times greater than that of young white men.
• African-American and Latino children are 3.5 times more likely to grow up in poverty compared to whites.

Poorer neighborhoods mean less access to stores selling health foods, fewer parks and safe places to run and play in and fewer social networks to promote health and safety. The California Endowment has launched a 10-year initiative, called Building Healthy Communities, to improve the health of men and boys of color by making strategic improvements in the communities and neighborhoods in which they live. In the report, the group identifies a handful of successful programs to improve the lives of men of color already in place in the state that could be applied on a larger scale -- and why implementing these programs statewide cannot wait.

-- Shari Roan