A person is only about 20% responsible for their own relative healthiness, MSNBC guest Dr. Uché Blackstock told host Charles Coleman Jr. on Saturday’s Velshi. The rest of what affects an individual’s health is decided by systemic factors such as the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Dr. Blackstock joined Dr. L. Ebony Boulware on for a discussion Saturday on Boulware’s recently published study on the “strong link between racism and chronic poor health conditions for Black and Brown communities in America.”

“This study, it defines structural racism as the means by which societies perpetuate discrimination through interconnected systems,” said Coleman, who was filling in for show host Ali Velshi. He asked Blackstock, author of the book “Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine”, to explain how structural racism affects health outcomes.

“I think so often we think about health as individual choices that patients that patients make excuse me, that patients make. And instead, we really need to understand how practices and policies, you know, the legacy of slavery, the legacy of Jim Crow, current-day systemic racism impacts the health of our communities,” said Blackstock.

“Individuals are only responsible for about 20% of what makes them healthy,” she said. “The other 80% are these systemic factors that Dr. Boulware and her colleagues studied in this very, very important research.”

She added that such factors have the “highest and most significant impact” on health vs. individual choices or particular instances of medical prescription or care.

Blackstock said that for these reasons it’s the “obligation” of for policymakers, local and federal government, and the healthcare industry to work with “community organizations” to address community disparities and systemic racism that are the true cause of chronic bad health.

COLEMAN: This study, it defines structural racism as the means by which societies perpetuate discrimination through interconnected systems, including housing, education and unemployment. Can you clarify for our audience how the prevalence of certain factors like inadequate housing and schools and even the quality of nearby medical facilities, they are all indicators of structural racism which can then negatively affect these actual health outcomes.

BLACKSTOCK: You know, thank you so much, Charles, for having me and honored to be on with Dr. Boulware. Thank you for this study. It’s important information policymakers need to do. I think so often we think about health as individual choices that patients that patients make excuse me, that patients make. And instead, we really need to understand how practices and policies, you know, the legacy of slavery, the legacy of Jim Crow, current-day systemic racism impacts the health of our communities.

So when we have people who have housing insecurity, who live in food deserts, who live in communities where there’s not enough green space for them to walk around or to work out, where they’re not able to find gainful employment, where they’re not able to have healthy education. We know that racism is a key driver of what we call the social determinants of health. And what we see in terms of health inequities and health disparities are the downstream outcomes of those. And so I think it’s so important for us to connect the dots.

And the dots that need to be connected are that, you know, individuals are only responsible for about 20% of what makes them healthy. The other 80% are these systemic factors that Dr. Boulware and her colleagues studied in this very, very important research that needs to inform how, you know, communities and resources are given. So, for example, we have seen a chronic disinvestment in Black communities and communities of color which have led to these poor health outcomes. So the results that, you know, Dr. Boulware’s study showed really need to inform policies. Policies that impact health on a more holistic level.

So it’s not just about what medications a physician prescribed or a health professional prescribed, it’s about what is the prescription for making a community healthier? What will allow it to have higher quality education, better job opportunity, more greenspace? All of that is critically, critically important. And I’m so glad that we are now discussing those factors instead of what happens inside of an exam room or clinic room, because we know what happens at the community level has the highest and most significant impact on the health of our communities.

And our communities deserve that. Because of discriminatory housing policies and other racist practices, we are seeing what we’re seeing now in terms of these high burdens of chronic disease in our communities. Diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease, essentially it’s killing us.

And so I think there’s an obligation for policymakers at the local, state, federal level to partner with community organizations. I think also for health care institutions, there’s an obligation for them as well to really look at what strategies do we need to employ to mitigate how the impact of the legacy of systemic racism, past and present, and what’s happening even current day in our communities.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.

The post MSNBC Guest Says Individuals Only ‘About 20%’ Responsible For Their Own Health, ‘Structural Racism’ The ‘Most Significant’ Factor first appeared on Mediaite.

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