Hispanic kids less likely to get top-notch brain cancer care
We've written a good deal here at Picture of Health about racial and ethnic health disparities. But here's an issue of unequal access that's news to me: gaps in care among children with brain tumors.
Hispanic children who have been diagnosed with brain tumors are less likely to receive high-quality treatment in specialty hospitals than their peers of other ethnicities, according to a recent paper by Johns Hopkins researchers.
The findings, published in a recent issue of the journal Pediatrics, found that out of a study over 18 years of 4,421 children with brain cancer, Latino children had the worst access to quality care.
You might think this is a matter of access to good health insurance. But researchers found that coverage didn't play a role in where a patient was treated. Rather, even after adjusting for socioeconomic status, Latino children received top-notch care at one-third of the rate of other children, researchers found.
The gaps in care were shocking to researchers. Despite recent studies and industry efforts pushing to provide quality care for all, the gaps remain, they said. The reasons for the gaps are unclear. Perhaps Hispanic kids are less likely to live near to-notch institutions? Or maybe something else is at play? Researchers also found disparities were higher in communities with high numbers of immigrants and fewer neurosurgeons, which makes sense.
Researchers said the findings are yet another example of the major changes needed to improve access to care.
"Our findings are yet another reminder that we are at a unique corssroad in history as we try to restructure our healthcare system," said Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, associate professor of neurosurgery and oncology at Hopkins (pictured above) in a statement. "we have been given a chance to reduce, perhaps even, eliminate, these inequities once and for all.
Baltimore Sun photo
