It’s hard to deny that the United States has an equality problem. Systemic racism, sexism, and the cycle of poverty have led to huge differences in the health, safety, and overall quality of life of people living in this country. For many, just being able to access medical care is a struggle.
Public health trends are something we should be paying close attention to. They are important not only for tracking the spread of illness but also for understanding how social factors might be affecting different communities and the health disparities (inequalities) between them.
Biostatistics can help us in learning more about which health disparities exist and why, so we can work on reducing them. Here’s how.
What is the Field of Biostatistics?
At its heart, biostatistics is a field of data collection and analysis. Biostatisticians collect information relevant to public health using a range of methods (such as focus groups and clinical trials) and use mathematical principles and statistical models to understand trends. Biostatisticians can help public health officials understand the factors affecting community health and issues like health disparities.
Biostatistics is different from epidemiology, although the fields are closely linked. In fact, biostatistical analyses are often used as the basis for epidemiological research.
Typically, epidemiologists study the spread of disease. Biostatisticians look at a wider range of public health concerns and the factors affecting those health issues. In addition to providing insights about why certain health issues and disparities pop up more frequently in some communities, they can also conduct research on the effectiveness of different public health programs.
What are Health Disparities?
The Centers for Disease Control defines biostatistics as “preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations.”
The key word here is “preventable.” Health disparities are differences that should not exist in our society but continue to affect a large part of the population.
Health disparities can show up in many ways. For example, disadvantaged populations might have a lower life expectancy or suffer from issues such as obesity and chronic health problems at a higher rate than the general population due to a lack of access to healthy food, transportation, or health insurance.
Disparities are systemic problems and they keep people from improving their health and their lives, leading to a vicious cycle that can go on for generations. Health disparities go hand in hand with discrimination, poverty, and poor educational opportunities. By addressing health disparities, society can not only improve the health of vulnerable populations but also other areas of their lives.
How Can Biostatistics Help with Health Disparities?
Understanding as much as we can about health disparities is critical for coming up with effective solutions. Biostatistics is all about collecting objective data and analyzing it to reveal key insights. We know that disparities exist, but it’s not always clear as to what factors are influencing different disparities.
Government agencies and health leaders can use biostatisticians’ data and insights to create initiatives that are aimed at reducing health disparities, such as increasing cultural competency within the healthcare industry. Even better, biostatistics can then be used to help evaluate each initiative’s effect on the target community’s health and access to care.
Biostatistics has the flexibility to look at disparities from different angles. For example, biostatisticians can look at a certain segment of the population or a specific type of ailment and see how social, biological, and environmental factors affect related health disparities. Being able to separate different potential causes provides more accuracy and information for making improvements.
Leveraging Biostatistics to Improve the Lives of Millions
The field of biostatistics is growing, which is good news as it plays such an important role in helping to break down health disparities and pinpoint their causes. Understanding as much as we can about who is affected by different disparities and the factors involved can help us come up with solutions. This is an urgent issue as disparities are preventable but extremely serious, affecting everything from mental health to mortality.
The problem of health disparities is complex. It’s closely related to other social problems, such as poverty, homelessness, and discrimination. Many different variables can contribute to health disparities, making a simple solution impossible.
However, biostatisticians are providing the data we need to make smart decisions about resource allocations, new programs, and initiatives to improve health equity. At the end of the day, everyone deserves a chance to enjoy a happy, healthy life—and leveraging biostatistics to reduce health disparities will improve the lives of millions.
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