Book Description

In 1987 a project was undertaken to assess the status of African Americans in the United States in the topical areas to be addressed by the National Research Council's Study Committee on the Status of Black Americans: education, employment, income and occupations, political participation and the administration of justice, social and cultural change, health status and medical care, and the family. Six volumes resulted from this study. This volume, the fifth, explores the health status of African Americans. For many health status indicators the rates are improving for blacks as well as whites. However, a racial gap still remains, and in some instances the gap has increased over the past decade of two. In a search for relevant factors associated with these trends, health issues are examined in the following chapters: (1) "Health Status and Sociodemographic Context"; (2) "Adverse Birth Outcomes: Infant Mortality, Low Birth Weight, and Maternal Deaths"; (3) "Cancer Incidence and Mortality among African-Americans"; (4) "Trends in Homicide among African-Americans"; (5) "Lead Poisoning: The Invisible Epidemic"; (6) "Current Plagues: Chemical Dependency and AIDS"; (7) "Sickel Cell Anemia"; (8) "Access to Medical Care"; (9) "Health Work Force Distribution"; and (10) "Cross-Cutting Issues in the Health of African-Americans." Medical care alone will not reduce the great disparities in health status between black and white Americans completely. To redress these inequities, other aspects of society must change, and it must be understood that disease is rooted in social structure. An appendix lists project study group members and contributors. Each chapter contains references. (Contains 1 figure and 64 tables.) (SLD)