CHICAGO, March 13: Blacks enrolled in US managed care insurance plans receive poorer care than whites, perhaps because of factors such as education and income, researchers said on Tuesday.

The report from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Harvard Medical School was based on an analysis of data from more than 305,000 people enrolled in managed care plans that accept Medicaid patients.

The authors reported disparities in four key areas including breast cancer screening, which was performed for 62.9 percent of black enrollees compared to 70.9 percent of whites.

In addition, eye exams were given to 43.6 percent of black patients with diabetes compared to 50.4 percent of whites with the condition. Beta-blockers were administered after a heart attack to 64.1 percent of blacks but 73.8 percent of whites.

Follow-up after hospitalization for mental illness was performed for 33.2 percent of blacks compared to 54 percent of the white patients studied, the researchers said.

The study was published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Our results suggest that individual socioeconomic characteristics (the most important being attained education, income and Medicaid insurance status) explain differing proportions of the observed racial disparity,” the researchers wrote.

The authors also said the difference is also partly explained by the fact that blacks were disproportionately enrolled in health plans that had poorer overall performance.

The report noted that, historically, blacks in the United States have been less likely to receive many types of medical services and procedures, and they bear a disproportionate share of health problems related to a variety of chronic diseases.

The Harvard report is the latest in a series of studies by different groups, citing income and education as factors in disease and survival rates among different US groups.—Reuters