Racial and Ethnic Inequalities in Multiple Long-term Conditions: Current Trends and Viable Solutions

Long-term conditions (e.g. diabetes, hypertension, heart disease), are conditions that cannot be cured but are managed through medication/treatment/therapies. Globally, one in three people live with two or more long-term conditions (i.e. multiple long-term conditions (MLTCs)). Having MLTCs is associated with poor health outcomes e.g. lower quality of life, polypharmacy, and increased risk of mortality. For health systems, MLTCs are associated with increased healthcare utilization and a greater need for multi-department consultations. In many countries, people from racial or ethnic minoritized groups are some of the most disadvantaged populations in society. When compared with people from the majority racial/ethnic groups, they are more likely to face inequalities in the prevalence and impact of MLTCs. People from racially/ethnic minoritised ethnic groups with MLTCs are also more likely to experience poor care quality and report lower levels of satisfaction with healthcare services, and inadequate support to manage their conditions. The number of people living with MLTCs is set to rise in the coming decades. With racially/ethnically minoritized people being disproportionately impacted by MLTCs, furthering our understanding of the inequalities these groups face in MLTCs and identifying viable solutions that redress these inequalities is crucial.

This Research Topic aims to curate a collection that showcases the state of the art in racial/ethnic inequalities in MLTCs and viable solutions that address existing inequalities. We seek contributions from across the globe that illuminate the extent of disparities across different conceptualizations of MLTCs (e.g. MLTCs that include a physical health condition and a mental health condition, and/or MLTCs that focus on cardiometabolic conditions).

This collection welcomes manuscripts that report on initiatives/interventions/strategies that have been implemented to improve health(care) outcomes for racially/ethnic minoritized people with MLTCs or support them in managing their conditions. Such studies are crucial as they provide evidence of good practice that can be tailored, spread, and scaled to different contexts. Emphasis will be placed on innovative methodological approaches that recognize the heterogeneity of racially/ethnically minoritized people and the intersection of their social identities within broader structures and powers of oppression resulting in differential outcomes. This Research Topic centers on contributions that can inform strategies that not only improve health(care) outcomes for people with MLTCs from racially/ethnic minoritised groups but also those that prevent the widening of the existing inequalities in health(care) for people with MLTCs.

Original articles or reviews that address, (but are not limited to), the areas below are welcome:
• Identifying and understanding the mechanisms/drivers of racial/ethnic inequalities in health for people with MLTCs;
• Gender differences in the prevalence of MLTCs among people from racial/ethnic minoritised groups;
• Life course approaches to advance understandings of racial/ethnic inequalities in MLTCs;
• Explorations of the impact of MLTCs on people with mental health conditions;
• Exploring racial/ethnic inequalities in mental health for people with MLTCs;
• An examination of racial/ethnic inequalities in the prevalence of different conceptualizations of MLTCs;
• The lived experiences of people with MLTCs from racial/ethnic minoritised groups;
• Identification of strategies to improve healthcare outcomes for people with MLTCs;
• System-level changes required to support people from minoritized racial/ethnic groups better.

Keywords: race, ethnicity, inequality, multiple long-term conditions, trends, solutions

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.