Health Status of African American

Health Status of African American
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Health Status of African American
African American is one of the ethnic minority groups in the United States. People from this group are called African Americans or black Americans because they have total or partial ancestry from any black racial group in Africa (Americanprogress.org, 2019). The current health status of African Americans identifies a higher prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and sexually transmitted infections than whites (Mensah, 2018). However, compared to the national average, the prevalence is nearly equal. For instance, estimates show that coronary heart disease (CHD) prevalence among African Americans aged 20 and older is 7.1%. This is close to the national average of 7.2%.
According to Boyas and Lim (2021), the leading cause of death in the US is heart disease. About 23.5 % of deaths caused by heart disease have been reported in the black population compared to around 23.4% national average (CDC, 2020). These adverse conditions are attributed to poor diet quality, low physical activity, smoking, insufficient sleep, and untreated sleep disorders in African American group (Kris‐Etherton et al., 2020). Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control stated that Black Americans are more likely to die early because young people live with conditions that are more common at older ages for other races. In addition, socioeconomic factors like unemployment and poverty also contribute to the adverse health conditions of African Americans.
Health Disparities for African American
The US is home to persistent racial disparities in health coverage, chronic health conditions, mental health, and mortality. For example, in 2017, 10.6% of the black Americans were uninsured compared with 5.9% of the national average (Americanprogress.org, 2019). Cancer is the avenue for the differences in health outcomes between African Americans and other ethnic groups regarding chronic conditions. The American Cancer Society reported that black people have the highest death rate and shortest cancer survival compared with other racial groups (Kris‐Etherton et al., 2020). In addition to cancer deaths, more than 11 infant deaths per 1,000 live births among African Americans occur (CDC, 2019). This is almost twice the national average of about 5.8 infant deaths per 1,000 live births (CDC, 2019). Another area of health disparity is renal disease.
The National Kidney Foundation found that African Americans can suffer from kidney failure thrice the national average rate. According to Mensah (2018), black patients represent almost 30% of all patients in the US receiving dialysis for kidney failure. Nutritional challenges for this group include an unbalanced diet influenced by low intake of dairy products, fruits, and vegetables and high intake of fats and processed food products among low-income black American households (Kris‐Etherton et al., 2020). In addition, as noted, poverty and unemployment are high among African Americans, and this disparity leads to nutritional challenges due to the inability to purchase healthy foods.
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