Exclusive: NAACP Launches Health Equity Map, Pointing Out Disparities In Food, Healthcare, Clean Air And Water, And More – AfroTech

A first-of-its-kind tool has launched to drive investment in health equity.

The NAACP launched a health equity map to raise awareness of health disparities and prompt action from policymakers and healthcare systems. Map users will be able to discover data from nearly 23,000 residents across 4,000 ZIP codes in 47 states, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and filter it based on race and gender to examine correlations related to access to healthy food, quality healthcare, culturally responsive providers, safe neighborhoods, clean air and water, and stable housing, according to a press release shared with AFROTECH™.

“Health is a mosaic of contributing factors,” NAACP’s Director of the Center for Health Equity Dr. Chris Pernell said in a statement shared exclusively with AFROTECH™. “Many of those factors happen at the ground level in how the neighborhoods where we live, work, play, or pray are structured. ZIP codes shape access to natural resources and public goods, as well as how systems conspire to determine risks, exposures, and life experiences. This map lays those factors and experiences over ZIP codes, and you finally see our separate experiences as a whole.”

NAACP President Derrick Johnson commented:

“Americans — especially Black and Brown communities — are facing a dire health epidemic in this country. ZIP codes too often determine our health outcomes. Those we elect to local and federal office have utterly failed to address this crisis, so we’re making it impossible to deny. This map brings the data to life to inform policies and principles to improve health outcomes.”

What Data Shows

The map’s data, collected by the ACE Your Health Community Wellness survey, revealed that while 63% of respondents have at least one chronic condition, only 28% of lower-income respondents — those making less than $20,000 — lived near quality hospitals, compared with 33% of respondents earning more than $60,000 annually.

“In America — the wealthiest nation in history — there is absolutely no excuse for people living in hospital deserts, not being able to afford basic medical care, or not having proper access to quality food or clean water, especially as billionaires pocket more and more money at our expense,” Johnson told AFROTECH™.

The study found that only 38% of lower-income residents lived within five minutes of a grocery store, compared with 56% of households earning more than $100,000. It also reported that while 81% of respondents described their neighborhood air quality as good, only 38% said they had access to good-quality water, with that number dropping to 31% among lower-income residents.

Desired Outcomes

The NAACP hopes the map will be shared among community leaders, policymakers, and health systems to promote advocacy, investment, and policy. It wants the community to rely on the tool for advocacy that will improve the infrastructure for healthcare and education systems, including safe housing, reliable transportation, accessible green spaces, and culturally responsive care, noted Pernell.

Now that the map is published, community members will be mobilized to leverage the ACE Your Health Literacy Toolkit, which uses data from the map to empower communities to improve individual and collective health. Their participation will be used to collect further information about blocks, neighborhoods, or ZIP codes.

Additionally, there is an NAACP CommunityWorks tool, which allows community members to put their community on the map.

“It helps us better understand where there is interest in communities being mapped and can inform next steps going forward,” Pernell explained.

NAACP members and other community members will also be trained on neighborhood health audits, community asset mapping, and advocacy through letters to elected officials, local hospitals, school boards, and doctors’ offices.