BACKGROUND Although the overall life expectancy at birth has increased for both blacks and whites and the gap between these populations has narrowed, disparities in life expectancy and the leading causes of death for blacks compared with whites in the United States remain substantial. Understanding how factors that influence these disparities vary across the life span might enhance the targetin...

BACKGROUND Previous epidemiological and clinical research on mental disorders has treated Blacks as a homogenous group and yet Blacks of Caribbean descent and African Americans differ with respect to ethnicity, national heritage, living circumstances, and immigration status. The purpose of this article is to examine the prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) among African Americans, Cari...

Although white adults have more extensive aortic surface involvement with fibrous plaques than do blacks, adolescent blacks have more aortic fatty streaks (FS) than do whites of similar ages. Possible determinants of these racial differences in aortic surface involvement with FS were therefore examined in 44 decedents who had previously been examined as part of the Bogalusa Heart Study. Ages at...

An estimated 1.5 million people suffer a bone disease-related fracture every year. Most work investigating bone mineral density (BMD) focuses on post-menopausal females but a report from the Surgeon General in 2004 stated that of particular concern are men, racial and ethnic minorities, poor individuals, individuals with disabilities, and individuals living in rural areas. The purpose of this s...

OBJECTIVES To explore whether there are differences in sleep duration between blacks and whites residing in similar urban neighborhoods and examine whether the relationship between sleep durations and sociodemographic and/or health indices are consistent for blacks and whites. METHODS A total of 1,207 participants from the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Disparities across the Life Span stu...

The present study was designed to investigate the role of abnormalities in red blood cell sodium-potassium-chloride (Na-K-Cl) cotransport and Na+ pump as predictors of the pressor response to chronic oral Na+ loading in young whites and blacks. Subjects were healthy adults from 18 to 23 years of age and included normotensive whites (n = 24) and normotensive blacks (n = 35). Red blood cell trans...

BACKGROUND Despite long-term declines in US stroke mortality rates, declines have slowed in the past decade and targets for blacks for the years 2000 and 2010 seem attainable only by extraordinary measures, if at all. This review focuses attention on key aspects of this problem. Data from the US National Center for Health Statistics and reports of population-based studies of stroke mortality pu...

We reviewed demographic data on patients having 2,256 carotid endarterectomies in eight large hospitals in North Carolina to determine the frequency of blacks among these patients. Blacks comprised only 4.6% of the patients having carotid endarterectomy even though they comprised 26% of all patients discharged and 22% of the general population of the state. Data from the National Inpatient Prof...

Although we have made great strides in reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease over the past 50 years, blacks in the United States still face increased cardiovascular mortality, along with a disproportionate burden of risk factors.1–3 However, if race-based comparisons become the basis for action, it is essential that they be measured and interpreted accurately. Blacks experience higher m...

Car Ownership and the Labor Market of Ethnic Minorities We show how small initial wealth differences between low skilled black and white workers can generate large differences in their labor-market outcomes. This even occurs in the absence of a taste for discrimination against blacks or exogenous differences in the distance to jobs. Because of the initial wealth difference, blacks cannot afford...