Senior Black men more likely to die after surgery than peers in U.S.: study

NEW YORK, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Among older patients, Black men may have a higher chance of dying within 30 days following surgery than their peers in the United States, according to a new study.

This inequity could be driven by outcomes following elective surgery, for which death was 50 percent higher for Black men than for White men, CNN reported Wednesday, citing the study published in the medical journal BMJ.

Separate research published in 2020 came to similar findings among children, showing that within 30 days from their surgeries, Black children were more likely to die than White children, the report said.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, analyzed Medicare data on more than 1.8 million beneficiaries, aged 65 to 99 years, who underwent one of eight common surgical procedures. The data came from 2016 to 2018, and the researchers examined how many patients died during their hospital stay or within 30 days after surgery.

The study did not explore what could be driving the disparity, but Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa, the senior author of the study and associate professor of medicine at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, said "several factors" could potentially play a role.

"The structural racism may at least partially explain our findings. For example, Black patients living in neighborhoods with predominantly Black residents tend to live close to hospitals that lack resources to provide high quality healthcare," Tsugawa was quoted as saying.