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Higher Risk of Major Disease for Black Women
African American women are twice as likely as white women to develop diabetes, heart disease and other major health problems. As the government addresses these disparities, African American health advocates are forging initiatives of their own.
As the fact that black women are 25 times more likely than white women to be infected with HIV/AIDS and twice as likely to be hepatitis C (a liver disease), lupus (an autoimmune disease), have heart attacks, develop diabetes (high blood sugar) and overweight. Significantly higher risk of cancer, asthma, arthritis, and the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia.
While stunning, those statistics come as no surprise to some experts in black women's medical care.
They say that these disparities started when black women do not get an screenings of adequate health with Only 75 percent of African American women seek prenatal care, as it compared to 89 percent of white women and only 7 percent of black women get treatment when they got depression, it's compared to 20 percent of other depression patients.
Even that they got medical care, African American women still often get short shrift. A 1994 study Journal of the American Medical Association found that Medicare patients who are African American with seriously ill and poor, in every type of hospital in America, will receive worse care than other gravely ill Medicare patients.
An addition to problems with the medical system, the socioeconomic factors also add to poor health.
Unemployment rates and poverty for black women are double that of white women, and accordingly to 2000 data from the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Census Bureau. According to the Menlo Park, Calif.-based Kaiser Family Foundation, 20 percent 18 to 64 ages of black women are uninsured, it's compared to 16 percent of white women in the same age bracket.
Black women which address the health risks that threaten them, have launched organizations including the Sisters Network, the Black Women's Health Imperative, Bond's Chicago organization, and SisterLove, an Atlanta-based sexual health organization.
To supplement them, other African American organizations are urging black women to exercise regularly, eat healthier and get health screenings. Spearheading these efforts are black churches; professional groups such as The Links, Incorporated; Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and community organizations such as the National Council of Negro Women and the International Black Women's Congress.
"Society has failed the African American woman by devaluing the importance of her health, but our community is fighting back by working to close the health gap" says Jackson of the Sisters Network.
As the fact that black women are 25 times more likely than white women to be infected with HIV/AIDS and twice as likely to be hepatitis C (a liver disease), lupus (an autoimmune disease), have heart attacks, develop diabetes (high blood sugar) and overweight. Significantly higher risk of cancer, asthma, arthritis, and the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia.
While stunning, those statistics come as no surprise to some experts in black women's medical care.
They say that these disparities started when black women do not get an screenings of adequate health with Only 75 percent of African American women seek prenatal care, as it compared to 89 percent of white women and only 7 percent of black women get treatment when they got depression, it's compared to 20 percent of other depression patients.
Even that they got medical care, African American women still often get short shrift. A 1994 study Journal of the American Medical Association found that Medicare patients who are African American with seriously ill and poor, in every type of hospital in America, will receive worse care than other gravely ill Medicare patients.
An addition to problems with the medical system, the socioeconomic factors also add to poor health.
Unemployment rates and poverty for black women are double that of white women, and accordingly to 2000 data from the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Census Bureau. According to the Menlo Park, Calif.-based Kaiser Family Foundation, 20 percent 18 to 64 ages of black women are uninsured, it's compared to 16 percent of white women in the same age bracket.
Black women which address the health risks that threaten them, have launched organizations including the Sisters Network, the Black Women's Health Imperative, Bond's Chicago organization, and SisterLove, an Atlanta-based sexual health organization.
To supplement them, other African American organizations are urging black women to exercise regularly, eat healthier and get health screenings. Spearheading these efforts are black churches; professional groups such as The Links, Incorporated; Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and community organizations such as the National Council of Negro Women and the International Black Women's Congress.
"Society has failed the African American woman by devaluing the importance of her health, but our community is fighting back by working to close the health gap" says Jackson of the Sisters Network.
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