Black people visit emergency rooms at higher rates for mental health concerns
From 2018 to 2020, non-Hispanic Black adults went to the emergency room at a rate of 97 visits per 1,000 adults, or nearly twice as often as the general population, for any mental health-related concern.
Given that Black communities don’t receive the same degree of care as their white peers, researchers can likely attribute their reluctance to seek regular physical and mental health care to a general mistrust of medical establishments.
A study published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s National Center for Health Statistics shows that Black adults are more likely than their white counterparts to visit emergency rooms when they have mental health issues. However, they also experience longer wait times and are less likely to be admitted for treatment, according to U.S. News & World Report.
From 2018 to 2020, non-Hispanic Black adults went to the emergency room at a rate of 97 visits per 1,000 adults, or nearly twice as often as the general population, for any mental health-related concern. Non-Hispanic white adults had a rate of 53.4 visits per 1,000 people, and Hispanics had the lowest at 36 trips.
During hospital visits, Black and Hispanic adults were more likely than white adults to wait an hour or longer before seeing a doctor. They also said their appointment lasted four hours or longer overall.
Compared to 22.5% of white adults, 21.3% of Hispanic adults, and 21% of all adults, only 15.6% of Black adults were admitted or transferred to a hospital to treat a mental health-related illness.
The research noted no statistically significant difference between the proportion of Hispanic and white patients.
In comparison to white and Hispanic adults, Black adults had higher rates of emergency department visits for all categories of mental health conditions examined, including drug use disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and schizophrenia.
The study found that Black adults were almost twice as likely to go to an emergency room for a substance use disorder, with an annual average of 53.1 visits per 1,000 people.
From 2018 to 2020, adults in the U.S. made an average of 774,508 visits to the emergency department overall for reasons linked to their mental health, accounting for 12.3% of all trips made by adults.
As people aged, they were less likely to experience mental health crises that required a trip to the emergency room. Data shows that younger adults were more likely to visit an emergency room, with 56.3 percent of adult visits between 18 and 44, 30.1 percentbetween 45 and 64, and 13.6% for 65 and older.
The analysis did not look into the causes of the racial disparities discovered. However, prior studies have shown that people of color frequently have mental illnesses that are not adequately diagnosed and treated, contributing to increasing rates of drug overdose deaths and suicide.
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