AL.com, April 7, 2024, Historic Redlining Still Affects Cancer Care Today, UAB Researchers Find
The study, by lead author Dr. Qasim Hussaini, an oncologist and researcher at UAB, looked at a range of outcomes in almost 200 cities where the government rated neighborhoods for mortgage lending in ways that discriminated against minorities. The practice that came to be known as redlining categorized areas by color – green, blue, yellow and red – and limited the ability of people in lower-rated areas to get mortgage loans and build wealth.
Hussaini and his team found far-reaching associations between the ranking of a neighborhood and treatment of colon cancer. Patients in red areas tended to receive later diagnoses and lower quality of care compared to those in green areas. Even the patients who received early diagnoses in red neighborhoods did not do as well as people in other areas, which is a frustrating finding for Hussaini, who treats patients with colon cancer.
