African American Women Will Be More Of A Higher Risk Than

Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women in the United States. It is estimated that one in four women die from heart disease every year. Women are at a higher risk for heart disease than men because of a lack of knowledge and information. Women often feel the need to care for others before themselves and neglect their own health needs. As mothers, and sisters, and daughters it is important to protect our health for those that depend on us. Heart disease is preventable through knowledge and awareness and taking precautionary steps.

African Americans are the third largest racial or ethnic population, totaling 13.2% of the United States population (CDC, 2015). Giger (2013) states, some health disparities associated with African Americans is due to discriminatory practices and inequalities in social, economic, and educational opportunities, rather than biological factors. Statistics identifies higher health disparities for this population reflected in overall mortality rates compared to other populations. According to the Office of Minority Health (2014), the adult mortality rate is higher in African Americans for heart disease, stroke, cancer, asthma, influenza, pneumonia, and diabetes, as well as higher rates of infant mortality. For instance, the overall adult mortality rate for African Americans is 860.5 per 100,000 population compared to 731.0 per 100,000 population in Caucasian Americans according to 2012 data (KFF, 2015).

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major cause of death and disability in the United States among adults. More than one-half of all deaths were caused by heart disease, cancer or

Poverty stricken women are forced to live in communities with high crime and drug activity, increased unemployment and poor education school system. These adversities affect African American women at larger degrees throughout her lifetime. African American women are more likely to become a teen mother compared to other groups of women (Ukockis, 2016). This will place her at risks for economic hardships and physical, mental and emotional abuse.

Alcohol is also problematic for the African American population. Alcohol is one of the most significant problems among African Americans and leads to more violence, abuse, isolation and social consequences among black women when compared to white women (Donatelle, 2003). African Americans tend to have more of an alcohol problem as a population whole compared to whites but tend to consume less alcohol overall (Donatelle, 2004). Excessive, long term alcohol intake can lead to enhanced risk of developing cancer, a damaged central nervous system and harmful effects to the cardiovascular system (Donatelle, 2004). Since African Americans are already at more risk for developing cancer and cardiovascular disease, alcohol would enhance the risk of developing these disease and thus would reduce their overall health.

Keywords: socioeconomic status (SES), cardiovascular disease (CVD), African American, risk factors, social determinants, and health disparities, institutionalized racism.

For non-Hispanic White women, the combined model explained only 14% of the variance. The R-squared statistics for the women of color and non-Hispanic White women models were.43 and.14, respectively.

At each age, in all income groups with different health life styles, African Americans have higher mortality and morbidity rates than whites. I agree with this as minorities have been oppressed and discriminated since the beginning of time, all the built-up stress can cause detrimental effects on the health of the fetus growing inside the womb leading to high premature births and infant mortality rates. Also, this may explain why African American women experience this despite having good health, high economic status, and following the doctor’s

Molly Redden explains how black women are prone to die of having breast cancer than white women. According to the author, Redden mentions significantly high risk factors contributing towards black women. However, this deadly disease plays a role seriously and actually it's becoming an issue that race amongst black women are facing breast cancer, such as "morbid obesity," "exposure to the chemical environment," and "not able to receive for proper medical care." Discussing why this death rate toll is expected to increase a colossal amount, Redden reveals that cancer research from the American Cancer Society, nevertheless, said to be that black women are likely to be in danger as disconsolate for that reason they will also hit harder than other

Attention getter: Heart Disease is the leading cause of death in women in the United States. According to The Center for Disease Control (CDC), heart disease claimed more than 292,188 women’s’ lives in 2009, that’s 1 in every 4 female deaths. The National Coalition of Heart Disease states that “A woman dies every 34 seconds.”

Statistics have shown that African American women are highly susceptible to cancer; therefore it is logical to conclude that many cases of cancer-causing cells are transferred from one generation to the next. The cancerous cells could be highly noticed at early stages; however, less screening is done among African American women. Consequently, cancer cases are found late among the African American women. The late detection of cancerous condition among African American women is a factor of financial stability among them and contributes to the belief that the lower socioeconomic status is a factor too high risk.

Heart disease is the #1 killer of American women, but many women do not realize they are at risk

Heart disease is a major epidemic that is destructive and incurable. Every 1 in 4 deaths in America alone are caused by a diseased heart. People who are at risk are smokers, type 2 diabetics, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity or overweight, unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, and genetics. Some examples of heart diseases are marfan syndrome (which affects the body’s connective tissues.), cardiomegaly (which is an enlarged heart due to some other type of heart condition.) and lastly atrial fibrillation (which is when the heart has irregular electric signals leading the person to have irregular heart rhythms.)

Cardiovascular disease in general is the number one killer in both men and women, and it has been for

The leading killer of women and men remains, myocardial infarctions. In 2012, it accounted for every three out of ten deaths, killing 17.5 million people worldwide (The World Health Organization, n.d.). Myocardial infarctions (MI) stem from the onset of Coronary Heart Disease. Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) occurs when there is a blockage of blood flow to the heart. This blockage, is caused by a build-up of plaque in the heart’s arteries, which ruptures and becomes dislodged forming a blood clot that prevents oxygen- rich blood from reaching the heart. When blood to the heart is reduced this can trigger a myocardial infarction also known as a heart attack. The lack of blood to surrounding tissue in the heart can cause muscle death if not treated promptly and can be fatal (National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d.).