Inequality and Its Impacts on the Reproductive Outcomes
Of African American Women
Fleda Mask Jackson, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, Atlanta Regional Health Forum
Project Description:
African-American women of all socioeconomic backgrounds are at significantly greater risk, than women from other racial and ethnic groups, of giving birth to premature and underweight babies. Premature birth and low birth weight places infants in jeopardy of physical and mental impairment and death. Despite the diligence of maternal health care providers, recent data is signaling an alarming increase in the adverse birth outcomes for African American women. In parts of the southeast the rate of black infant mortality resulting from preterm delivery and low birth weight has risen from twice to five times that of whites. Moreover, the rate of black infant mortality due to poor birth outcomes forecast health disparities for African American women across the life span. As compared to women from other racial and ethnic groups, for most chronic diseases, African American women experience the highest rates of morbidity and mortality.
For more than a decade, community-based participatory research has been conducted in Atlanta, Georgia to document and assess the link between the intersecting stressors of race and gender and adverse birth outcomes. The Atlanta study of gendered racism captures the combined burdens of the gendered roles, imposed upon and assumed by women, and the historical and ongoing struggles associated with race and racism. To date this research involving nearly 600 African American women, from all walks of life, is unique as one of the few and perhaps the largest study in Atlanta to explicitly examine the link between racial and gendered experiences and poor health outcomes. The findings from the Atlanta study are contributing to a growing body of literature indicating how racism imperils health outcomes at the individual and community levels.
Grant support has been given by the Kellogg Foundation to advance the work of the Atlanta study through a multi-phased project with the goal of planning and producing public engagement processes for health professionals and the general population on the impact of race and gender as social determinants of health. The specific goal is to develop the component parts that include the completion of a full manuscript on the research, the development of an interactive website for disseminating the Jackson, Hogue, Phillips Contextualized Stress Measure, and the initiation of a process for developing an intervention model that corresponds to the unique stressors of race and gender confronted by African American women.
A dissemination model, “Calming the Waters: Holding Back the Storms ©” was created and implemented expressly for research participants as a demonstration of reciprocity and accountability. Funds have been provided to initiate the compilation of the materials from the dissemination process to inform a project for grant support to develop an intervention model. The development of the Jackson, Hogue, Phillips Contextualized Stress Measure, a unique tool for assessing racial and gendered stress, is a key product of the Atlanta study. Support will enhance the distribution of the tool through the development of an interactive website. Lastly, this project will convene a gathering of African American women and men scholars, activists, health care professionals, and researchers locally and from around the country to address the adverse impact of racism on reproductive and other health outcomes for African American women.
Applicant Organization
This project is a collaboration effort between the Atlanta study of Gendered Racism and Health, under the direction of MAJAICA, LLC and the Atlanta Regional Health Forum. The Atlanta Regional Health Forum is an inclusive, results-oriented, multisectorial, nonpartisan coalition operating as a 501(c)(3) non profit corporation. They are dedicated to creating healthy local communities and ensuring the highest health potential for each person. ARHF aligns itself with the World Health Organization’s definition of health: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental, social (and spiritual) well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Adoption of this definition affirms ARHF’s role in supporting this project and its focus on engaging the community around the social determinants of health and reducing health disparities. ARHF recognizes and values all community voices and is committed to reducing disparities and to evidence-based planning and policy development utilizing place-based data.
This project is conceptualized as a multi-phased endeavor that includes a symposium and internet engagement in conjunction with the national release of Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? - The PBS series on racial and economic health disparities. Ultimately, the goal of the proposed work is to mobilize multiple stakeholders engaged in individual and collective efforts to confront the continuum of social determinants including race, and gender, resulting in health disparities and in particular the disproportionately high rates of black infant mortality. As ARHF recognizes and values all community voices, the project brings robust research on psychosocial health risks and an extensive network of research and dissemination collaborators as an additive to the organization’s goals of evidence based planning, community informed policy development and advocacy for health and well-being.
