NICHQ's Commitment to Equity

Black families are twice as likely as white families to have their baby die in the first year of life. These statistics are more than numbers; they represent real families who suffer unimaginable loss—loss that stems from the persistent effects of systemic racism on the health of black families. Here, faculty experts on a national safe sleep and breastfeeding initiative share their recommendations for how health professionals and improvement initiatives can better support the health and well-being of black families.

Institutional racism continues to plague the health of children and families across the country. How do we pursue sustainable change? The answer starts with intentionally confronting and deconstructing how health systems were designed. 

Because not everyone has equal opportunity to the resources needed for health and well-being, disparities are pervasive right from the earliest years of life. But where does an individual start? How does one person make a dent in a systemic and structural problem? Find three ideas here. 

To understand health holistically, we need to consider it outside the silo of a healthcare system. We need to take into account the many other factors that impact our individual health, factors like the schools we attend and the relationships we experience. Read on to uncover three tried and tested ways to make changes in your state and help ensure that all children, regardless of circumstance, achieve equity in health outcomes.

To understand health holistically, we need to consider it outside the silo of a healthcare system. We need to take into account the many other factors that impact our individual health, factors like the schools we attend and the relationships we experience. Read on to uncover three tried and tested ways to make changes in your state and help ensure that all children, regardless of circumstance, achieve equity in health outcomes.

Racial disparities in health and healthcare access have a profound affect on infant health, especially when it comes to preterm births.

Achieving health equity has been a challenge for Rhode Islanders, especially for its infant mortality rate. Now, the Rhode Island Department of Health is targeting key social factors that impact infant mortality in minority groups, including education, income and stress.

In the U.S., the gap in health outcomes between non-Hispanic black and non-Hispanic white children continues to widen, with children of color more frequently suffering from chronic and preventable health conditions. Incorporating both a health and racial equity lens can help us drive sustainable improvements and counteract the role racism plays as key determinant of health. Here are four pieces of advice for applying that lens. 

Reports show as many as 88 percent of adult Americans lack the health literacy skills necessary to make appropriate health decisions. As a result, these adults often face formidable roadblocks to successfully achieve positive health outcomes for themselves and their family members. Read more about why NICHQ leaders believe using a health literacy perspective in our work is part of how we will achieve our goals for health equity.

Throughout this year, it has become clearer to many that the hard truth of the racism that shaped our nation requires us all—now, today—to acknowledge and address its impact in our health care systems and in ourselves. That's why we're sharing a collection of NICHQ articles and webinars that your community found most valuable in their equity journeys.

Louisiana has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. And troublingly, Black women are dying from pregnancy-related deaths at over four times the rate of white women. According to a recent report, more than half of these deaths could have been prevented by making a system change, either at the patient, community, or hospital level. These findings illustrate the enormous potential that quality improvement initiatives have for reducing maternal mortality in Louisiana and eliminating the Black-white disparity in maternal deaths. Here, the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative shares seven opportunities for improvement.  

While vaccinations help ensure that children will be less likely to be affected by preventable conditions, they have also been a tool in closing health disparities (differences in access to or availability of services) between population. As many professionals and organizations strive to achieve health equity, the drive to improve immunization rates is a replicable success story that can be applied repeatedly.

Early Childhood Health Equity (ECHE) work seeks to strengthen early childhood systems to support healthy child development and reduce health inequities and disparities that can have a lifelong impact. These briefs synthesize the recent work of the ECHE Landscape Project and highlight the themes and findings that emerged across the project activities.

Covering one half of young children birth to five, Medicaid (and Medicaid-CHIP programs) plays a critical role in improving young children’s health and developmental outcomes and assisting the families who support their healthy development. This document provides a common framework and specific opportunities for states and their partners working to improve Medicaid for young children.

Child care is unaffordable for the majority of working parents, especially for low-income and black and Hispanic working parents. This research brief provides insight and analysis about the challenges families face in affording childcare, which can underpin inequities in early childhood health and development.

With the projection that more than half of the nation’s children will be part of a minority race or ethnic group by 2020, the need to address health equity has never been stronger. However, there are many barriers hampering health equity and the overall health of America’s children.

BOSTON – The National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) is uniting with three other national maternal and child health organizations in a bold, public commitment to undoing racism as a key driver to improve maternal and infant health outcomes, highlighting irrefutable disparities in morbidity and mortality rates across racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

The National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) will serve as the coordinating center for the National Network of Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (NNPQC), a five-year cooperative agreement funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As a continuation and expansion upon the last five years, NICHQ will support Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs) in their efforts to reduce maternal and infant morbidity and mortality, improve perinatal health outcomes, and reduce disparities using quality improvement (QI) methods integrated with a health equity approach.