Why are fewer Black Americans getting GLP-1s?
This episode traces the history of race and diabetes in America to unpack why Black patients are still less likely to get access to GLP-1s, and why closing that gap will take more than a prescription.
Key points
- Yet when researchers reviewed 26 studies from across the country, they found that Black patients were about 20 percent less likely than white patients to be prescribed newer diabetes drugs.
- GLP-1s have become the newest celebrity miracle drug, with famous athletes like Serena Williams and Charles Barkley sharing that they’ve used it for weight loss.
- A century ago, doctors called diabetes a “luxury disease” of wealthy white and Jewish people, and many didn’t believe Black people could get the disease at all.
It affects nearly 40 million Americans and hits Black Americans especially hard.
Even after the landmark 1985 Heckler Report exposed stark racial disparities in American health, Black patients’ diabetes was often blamed on lifestyle rather than on the housing, food, financial, and healthcare inequities shaping their health.
Additional details
- But before they were famous, GLP-1s were developed to treat Type 2 diabetes, a disease that occurs when a person’s blood sugar becomes too high.
- According to the CDC, about 12 percent of Black adults have diabetes, compared with roughly 7 percent of white adults.
- Hosted by Kahlil Greene, this video is part of our series, Kahlil Explains, which unites Vox’s unique brand of explainer journalism with Greene’s expertise in how politics and culture shape society.
- Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have become a status symbol.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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