*5.3. Racism as a Social Determinant of Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis*

In their systematic review, Paradies et al. (2015), like Dovidio, Gaertner, and Kawakami (2010), define racism as "organized systems within societies that cause avoidable and unfair inequalities in power, resources, capacities, and opportunities across racial or ethnic groups [6] (p. 2)". Data from 293 studies revealed that racism was associated with lower health outcomes on all measures. Depression (37.2% of articles) was the most often reported mental health outcome, followed by self-esteem (24.3%), psychological stress (21.3%), distress (18.3%), and anxiety (14.4%). High blood pressure and hypertension were the most reported physical health outcomes, reported in 7.2% of articles [6].
