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You are Here: Home Page > Minority Health > Minority Health Issues  

Minority Health Issues

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health and other health literature sources, African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, have higher rates of infant mortality, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV infection/AIDS, cancer and lower rates of immunizations and cancer screening.

Following are some "Quick Facts" on minority health issues by race and ethnicity:

African Americans

• Account for over 43 percent of the AIDS cases in New York State while constituting only 14 percent of the population of the state.
• Have the highest prevalence of diabetes of all racial/ethnic groups (U.S.).
• Have the highest rate of adult obesity as compared to any other racial/ethnic group (U.S.).

American Indians/Alaska Natives

• Have an infant death rate 40 percent higher than the rate for Whites (U.S.).
• Are 60% more likely to have a stroke than their White counterparts (U.S.).
• Women are 2.4 times more likely to have, and to die from, liver and inflammatory bowel disease cancer, as compared to non-Hispanic White women (U.S.).
  

Asian Americans

• Had the highest tuberculosis case rate of all racial/ethnic groups in 2008. (U.S.)
• Nationally, Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) women between the ages of 15-24 have the highest rates of suicide among women in that age group, and AAPI women over 65 have the highest rates of suicide among all races in that age category.
• Have three times the incidence of liver and inflammatory bowel disease cancer as the non-Hispanic White population. (U.S.)
• Vietnamese women have rates of cervical cancer that are five times higher than the rates for White women. (U.S.)

Native Hawaiians/Other Pacific Islanders

• Have almost double the rate of diabetes and are almost six times more likely to die from diabetes as White residents. (U.S.)
• Native Hawaiian women have the highest incidence and mortality rates of endometrial cancers for all U.S. women.
• Have a tuberculosis rate that is 21 times higher (with a case rate of 23.0) than the rate for the U.S. White population of 1.1 (U.S.).

Hispanics/Latinos

• Among children ages 2 to 5 in New York, 20.1 percent of Hispanic children are obese, compared with 13.8 percent of African Americans and 12.4 percent of Whites.
• Have a death rate due to diabetes that is 40 percent higher than for non-Hispanic Whites. (U.S.)
• More than a third of Hispanics in the United States do not have health insurance.

For additional minority health information by race and ethnicity please visit the New York State Minority Health Surveillance Report.