This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (70)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Ronald L. Braithwaite, PhD; Ngina Lythcott, DrPH

JAMA. 1989;261(2):282-283.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

THE HEALTH status of blacks, other minorities, and the poor remains unconscionably low when contrasted with that of white Americans. This disparity is not new but is an historical trend that can be seen across all categories of the leading causes of death and disease. In August 1985, the Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Black and Minority Health² noted that minorities experienced approximately 60 000 "excess deaths" annually. Margaret Heckler, who was then the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, emphasized that the disparity is "an affront both to our ideals and to the ongoing genius of American Medicine." The six major contributors to the disparity between black and white death rates are cancer, cardiovascular disease and stroke, diabetes, chemical dependency, homicide and accidents, and infant mortality. Since the 1985 report, blacks and Latinos, in particular, also have evidenced a disproportionately high rate . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine and the Health Promotion Resource Center, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Health Promotion Resource Center, Morehouse School of Medicine, 720 Westview Dr SW, Atlanta, GA 30310-1495 (Dr Braithwaite).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?