Racial bias built into a common medical test for lung function is likely leading to fewer Black patients getting care for breathing issues
An 8-year-old student blows into a spirometer held by a nurse outside an elementary school in Bel Nor, Mo., in May 2009.NEW YORK — Racial bias built into a common medical test for lung function is likely leading to fewer Black patients getting care for breathing problems, a study published Thursday suggests.
The results are “exciting” to see published but it’s also “what we’d expect” from setting aside race-based calculations, said Vyas, who was an author of an influential 2020article that catalogued examples of how race-based assumptions are used in making doctors’ decisions about patient care.that there are natural racial differences in health, including one that Black people’s lungs were innately worse than those of white people.
After the test, doctors get a report that has been run through computer software and scores the patient’s ability breathe. It helps indicate whether a patient has restrictions and needs further testing or care for things like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder or lung scarring due to air pollutant exposure.
The new study looked at more than 2,700 Black men and 5,700 white men tested by University of Pennsylvania Health System doctors between 2010 and 2020. The researchers looked at spirometry and lung volume measurements and assessed how many were deemed to have breathing impairments under the race-based algorithm as compared to under a new algorithm.
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