Title: Why 7 Deadly Diseases Strike Blacks Most
Headings: Why 7 Deadly Diseases Strike Blacks Most
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Why 7 Deadly Diseases Strike Blacks Most
Health care disparities heighten disease differences between African-Americans and white Americans.

Content: Cigarette smoking is declining faster among blacks than among whites -- but blacks still die of lung diseases more frequently than white Americans. This could be due to health care disparities -- blacks may get diagnosed later, when diseases are harder to treat -- but it could also be due to genetic susceptibility. "The environment is involved, and there is potential genetic susceptibility -- but we also have to talk about the fact that African-Americans' social and economic status lags behind that of Caucasians," Graham says. " And low socioeconomic status is linked to more disease." Continued
It's not a simple question of access to health care itself, but access to specialists. Even within HMOs, Graham says, blacks get specialist referrals less often than whites. "I wonder if minority populations put as much pressure on their doctors to get specialty referrals," says Graham, who works to empower black community groups to know what they should expect from their health care. " And there may be more insidious, darker reasons why doctors are less likely to refer African-American patients. But as a specialist myself, I know that patients who get to see me have gone to their doctors and said, 'This isn't working.'" African-Americans and Heart Disease, Stroke
Heart disease and stroke disproportionately affect African-Americans.