CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Research done by the University of Chicago Medicine found there’s much work to be done in addressing health disparities.
The latest Community Health Needs Assessment, which is done every three years, focuses on about a million people in the service areas of the University of Chicago Medical Center, on the south side, and Ingalls Memorial Hospital, in the South suburbs.
The report said residents have strikingly high rates of cancer, asthma, diabetes, obesity and other chronic diseases. Cancer and heart disease are at the top of the priority list, along with violence prevention.
The researchers noted that residents of the South Side are more likely to receive a severe initial cancer diagnosis and are twice as likely to die of cancer than those living just about anywhere else in the country.
At Friend Health’s facility, near the University of Chicago, Board Chairman Shawn Hardin recently noted the disparity.
“There’s one study that suggests that just a few miles north of here, your life expectancy is 85-years old, but for a Woodlawn resident that life expectancy is 75-years old,” said Harden.
Mayor Lightfoot also addressed this last week at the opening of a new community healthcare facility on the South Side.
“There should never be a time in one of the wealthiest cities in the world where the life expectancy of Black people in our city is ten years less,” Lightfoot said.
The researchers said in the south suburbs the mortality rate from heart disease is 26% higher among black residents than other racial groups.
The University of Chicago Medicine announced earlier this year, it’s building a stand-alone $600 million facility that will focus on cancer care and research.
Listen to WBBM Newsradio now on Audacy!
Sign up and follow WBBM Newsradio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Related
