Worrisome health disparities persist in Pennsylvania, according to new report

(The Center Square) – Poverty rates in Pennsylvania’s households led by males rose 19% from 2009 to 2019, according to a report from the United Health Care Foundation.

The report looks at more than 30 health-related measures gleaned from data collected by the foundation, which is the philanthropic arm of UnitedHealth Group. The data can include education levels, poverty levels and income equality along with basic health measures such as diabetes rates, health care costs and infant mortality rates, according to Dr. Rhonda Randall, chief medical officer of UnitedHealthcare Employer and Individual, part of UnitedHealth Group.

The high school education rates improved among females in Pennsylvania, improving 30 percent between 2009 and 2019. And fewer black adults in the commonwealth avoided care because of the costs, according to the report.

The diabetes rates for adults with some college education rose 24% between 2013 and 2019 and the number of college graduates with multiple chronic conditions increased by 31% during the same time period.

“People who have graduated college, that’s generally been shown as being protective for your health over time,” Randall said. “Generally, we see people who are college graduates are less likely to smoke, less likely to have multiple chronic conditions, more likely to be physically active, et cetera … And we’re seeing the opposite be true in Pennsylvania where multiple chronic conditions among those who graduated college are on the rise.

There was some positive news from Pennsylvania, according to Randall.

“We’re seeing infant mortality in black infants decrease in the state of Pennsylvania – decreased 26 percent between the year 2003 and 2018, a trend that we’ve also seen nationally,” Randall said.

The national data pointed out some positives.

“Some of the key findings in the report, the uninsured rate went down in our nation, 37% between the measurement period year 2010 and then the last period ended in 2019,” Randall said. “That was really nice to see. We also saw improvements in infant mortality, but there’s still some disparities among races with infant mortality.”

But there’s still some work to do in some areas, according to Randall.

“We saw improvements in people who are living with severe housing problems as well, but as far as the concerns and the disparities that are either worsening or continuing to persist, mental health disparities were worsening,” Randall said. “And that’s what concerns us because that’s one of the measures that I’m going to be watching very carefully post-pandemic because we know there was a significant impact on mental health.”

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