Department of Surgery, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, 1500 E Duarte Rd, Duarte CA 91010, United States; Department of Population Sciences, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA, United States.
Department of Population Sciences, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA, United States.
J Natl Med Assoc. 2021 Aug;113(4):436-439. doi: 10.1016/j.jnma.2021.02.003. Epub 2021 Mar 13.
The COVID-19 pandemic reminds us that African American, Latinx, Indigenous, and poor communities face significant healthcare disparities. Members of these communities have increased exposure to the virus due to higher rates of crowded living conditions and employment in essential occupations. Furthermore, news reports and public health data show that residents of these communities have more comorbidities, utilize hospitals with fewer resources, and experience greater treatment delays, all resulting in higher mortality related to COVID-19. The same social determinants contributing to the inequities seen in COVID-19 drive similar disparities in oncology. Oncologic inequities have long predated the inequities associated with COVID-19 and have led to considerably more deaths. These stark realities demand that we stop merely reporting the impact of adverse social determinants on the health of communities. We must instead target these causes of healthcare disparities. Here, we discuss proposed action items from the 2019 National Cancer Policy Forum workshop entitled "Applying Big Data to Address the Social Determinants of Health in Oncology." These actions are critical first steps to address adverse social determinants and thereby decrease unnecessary deaths in underserved communities.
新冠疫情提醒我们，非裔美国人、拉丁裔、原住民和贫困社区面临着严重的医疗保健差距。由于居住条件拥挤和从事必要职业的人数增加，这些社区的成员更容易接触到病毒。此外，新闻报道和公共卫生数据显示，这些社区的居民有更多的合并症，使用资源较少的医院，并且治疗延误更严重，所有这些都导致与 COVID-19 相关的死亡率更高。导致 COVID-19 中不平等现象的相同社会决定因素也导致了肿瘤学中的类似不平等现象。肿瘤学的不平等现象早在与 COVID-19 相关的不平等现象出现之前就已经存在，并且导致了更多的死亡。这些严峻的现实要求我们不再仅仅报告不利的社会决定因素对社区健康的影响。相反，我们必须针对这些造成医疗保健差距的原因采取行动。在这里，我们讨论了 2019 年国家癌症政策论坛题为“应用大数据解决肿瘤学中健康的社会决定因素”的研讨会提出的行动计划。这些行动是解决不利社会决定因素的关键第一步，从而减少服务不足社区的不必要死亡。
