Health Conditions of Concern
Source: The National Women's Health Information Center

• Diabetes – a condition that increases the risk of kidney disease, heart disease, and eye and foot problems among other health complications – is 60% more common in African American women compared to white women.
• High blood pressure is more frequent among African American women, increasing the risks of stroke and heart disease.
• Obesity affects more than half of all adult African American women, carrying with it an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, respiratory disorders, arthritis, and some cancers.
• Kidney disease disproportionately affects African American women, often as a complication of high blood pressure or diabetes.
• Arthritis is more prevalent and leads to more activity limitations in African American women, compared to white women.
• HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects African American women, and is a leading cause of death for African American women between the ages of 25 and 44.

Prenatal Care
Sources: CDC; Congress of the United States, 1987, p. 8
Prenatal care encompasses a wide rang of preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic services delivered throughout the course of pregnancy, with the goal of both a healthy baby and a healthy mother. In regards to prenatal care, studies have shown that:

• Black women may not obtain abortions, undergo sterilization, or practice contraception with the same frequency as their white counterparts. These practices, in turn, may result from greater financial barriers, less awareness of the availability of these services, lack of affordable services, less acceptance of these services, or less availability of these services in the black community.
• In a report prepared by the Morehouse School of Medicine, it is revealed that pregnant white women tend to seek prenatal care earlier in their pregnancies than Black women do. It was also found that black women were more likely to be admitted to the hospital after childbirth than whites, and black infants, regardless of birth weight, were admitted to neonatal intensive care two-and-a-half times more often than white infants.
• In 1990, less than 65% of African American women, versus 78% of white women, received early prenatal care, a statistic that indicates no improvement over the last decade.
• 20% of poor women, compared to 6% of non-poor women, report problems obtaining prenatal care.

Breast Cancer

• In 1993, breast cancer mortality was 28% higher for African American women than for white women.
• The survival rate for breast cancer among African American women is 70% while the survival rate for white women is 86%.