Health Disparities Impacting

African Americans in Michigan

Cancer

·    African American males die of prostate cancer at more than twice the rate for whites (46.4 deaths vs. 21.9 deaths per 100,000).¹

·    African American women get breast cancer at a lower rate than whites, but die from breast cancer at a higher rate.¹

·    African Americans develop and die from cervical, colorectal, lung and prostate cancer more often than whites.¹

Cardiovascular Disease

·    Stroke is the 3^rd leading cause of African American male and female deaths.¹

·    African Americans are 40% more likely to have had a stroke in their lifetime than whites.²

·    Heart disease death rates are 322 per 100,000 population for African Americans compared to 219 per 100,000 for whites.¹

Diabetes

·    Nearly one in 9 African Americans has diabetes as compared to almost 1 in 14 whites.²

·    Although African Americans comprise only 14% of the population, they account for about:

o        20% of all people with diabetes³

o        34% of all people with kidney disease⁴

o        46% of all people on kidney dialysis⁴

HIV

·    While African Americans comprise 14 % of the population, they account for about 58% of those living with HIV.⁵

·    70% of the children living with HIV in Michigan are African American.⁵

·    One in 90 African American men and 1 in 260 African American women are living with HIV/AIDS.⁵

·    The rate of HIV infection for African Americans is almost 8 times higher than the rate for whites.⁵

Infant Mortality

·   African American infant deaths occur more than 3 times as often as white infant deaths (17.9 deaths vs. 5.5 deaths per 1,000 live births).¹

Life Expectancy

·   White males live an average of seven-and-a-half years longer than African American males.¹

·   White females live over five-and-a-half years longer than African American females.¹

·   Over 35% of African American males do not reach the age of 65.¹

Lifestyle

·   22% of African American high school students are overweight in comparison to 10% of white high school students.⁶

·   Just over 1 out of every 3 African Americans adults are considered obese compared to 1 out of every 4 whites. (33% population vs. 25% of population).²

·   A greater percentage of adult African Americans have inadequate physical activity compared to whites (58.4% of population vs. 48.7%).²

·   Nearly 1 in 7 African American high school students report having no physical activity in the last 7 days, in comparison to 1 in 10 white high school students.⁶

For More Health Information

Health Disparity Reduction & Minority Health Section Website:

http://www.michigan.gov/minorityhealth

The Michigan Surgeon General's Prescription for a Healthier Michigan & Healthy Michigan 2010: http://www.michigan.gov/mdch then select "What's New"

References

1.        Vital Records & Health Data Development Section, Michigan Department of Community Health

2.        Michigan 2005 BRFS, Division of Genomics, Perinatal Health and Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Michigan Department of Community Health

3.        Diabetes in Michigan Fact Sheet, Division of Genomics, Perinatal Health and Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Michigan Department of Community  Health

4.        Renal Network of Midwest, Inc. Renal Network 11, Annual Report, 2004.  Online: http://www.esrdnet11.org

5.        2006 HIV/AIDS Surveillance Section, Michigan Department of Community Health

6.      Michigan 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.  Accessed at http://www.emc.cmich.edu/YRBS/2005/default.htm