Why do minority women have worse health in the United States than white women?
Dr. Correa: The reason is because minority women they are disproportionately affected by certain diseases or conditions, and I can give you a few examples. For example, minority women tend to get high blood pressure very early in life compared to white women, and they are also less likely to be able to control their blood pressure, even if they are prescribed medications to do so. In addition to that, obesity rates continue to be very high among African American women and Mexican women, Mexican-American women. They have rates of between 52 and 53 percent compared to 34 percent of white women. And then to complicate matters, we know that both high blood pressure and obesity they are major risk factors for heart disease, for diabetes, for stroke and other conditions that can be very serious. Debra: We know that between 12 and 29 percent more white women than black women are stricken with breast cancer, but black women are 28 percent more likely than white women to die from the disease. W
