Feldman R H, Fulwood R
Department of Health Education, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, USA.
J Health Care Poor Underserved. 1999 Feb;10(1):45-71. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2010.0799.
African Americans suffer disproportionately from several major health problems associated with high morbidity and mortality. The 1985 DHHS Secretary's Task Force Report on Blacks and Other Minorities identified six major disease categories of excess deaths for African Americans compared with whites by applying the lower death rate for whites to the American population. The report provided a stimulus for public and private action to begin to address the health disparities between minority and nonminority populations. This article examines three of the leading causes of death for African Americans and assesses the extent to which the health disparity between African Americans and whites has been reduced. The three leading causes of death for African American males are diseases of the heart, cancer, and HIV infection/AIDS. The conditions are the same for African American females except stroke replaces HIV infection. Three health outcomes measures are discussed: life expectancy, excess death rates, and years of potential life lost. A widening of the gap between the races was found for diseases of the heart and HIV infection for males and for cancer for females. An extensive list of barriers to reducing the disparity are presented from the scientific literature and strategies for reducing the three health problems are recommended.
非裔美国人在一些与高发病率和高死亡率相关的重大健康问题上遭受的影响尤为严重。1985年美国卫生与公众服务部部长关于黑人和其他少数族裔的特别工作组报告，通过将白人较低的死亡率应用于美国人口，确定了与白人相比非裔美国人超额死亡的六大主要疾病类别。该报告促使公共和私人部门采取行动，开始解决少数族裔和非少数族裔人群之间的健康差距问题。本文研究了非裔美国人的三大主要死因，并评估了非裔美国人和白人之间的健康差距缩小的程度。非裔美国男性的三大主要死因是心脏病、癌症和艾滋病毒感染/艾滋病。非裔美国女性的情况与此相同，只是中风取代了艾滋病毒感染。本文讨论了三项健康结果指标：预期寿命、超额死亡率和潜在寿命损失年数。研究发现，男性的心脏病和艾滋病毒感染以及女性的癌症方面，种族之间的差距正在扩大。本文从科学文献中列出了一系列减少差距的障碍，并推荐了减少这三大健康问题的策略。
