medwireNews: Rates of death associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) do not vary by socioeconomic context among Black people in the USA, research suggests.
Using death certificate data from 24,773 SLE-related deaths, Titilola Falasinnu (Stanford University, California, USA) and colleagues analyzed mortality rates in the Eight Americas groups, based on race, location of the county of residence, population density, race-specific county level per capita income, and cumulative homicide rate, finding that mortality risk was highest among Black people across three of the groups.
Furthermore, the mean age at death was lowest for Black and Asian people regardless of geographical context, at approximately 48 years, and highest among White people with low income living in rural areas, at around 65 years.
Although Black people were living in “vastly different geographical and social contexts,” rates of SLE mortality “did not vary among socially advantaged and disadvantaged” groups, Falasinnu told delegates at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, USA.
And she concluded: “Together, these findings suggest that race and genetic predisposition may transcend social and geographic parameters as key determinants of SLE mortality.”
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