1 / 7

Keeping Black Men Healthy

A 2017 report (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr66/nvsr66_06.pdf) on U.S. deaths, life expectancy, mortality rates, and trends published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) revealed that of any ethnic groups in the U.S., Black men had, and possibly still have the lowest life expectancy. Much of this gap is explained by increased rates of chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes afflicting the poor and often poorly educated Black men.

relefordinstitute
Download Presentation

Keeping Black Men Healthy

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. MENU HOME / HEALTH AND WELLNESS / Keeping Black Men Healthy Keeping Black Men Healthy Doctor’s race can matter in health of Black men, study finds By DR. BILL J. RELEFORD, D.P.M. [caption id="attachment_16836" align="alignright" width="175"] DR. BILL J. RELEFORD, D.P.M.[/caption] A 2017 report (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr66/nvsr66_06.pdf) on U.S. deaths, life expectancy, mortality rates,      AUGUST 24, 2019 Compton Herald 0 0 756 Views SHARE Doctor’s race can matter in health of Black men, study finds

  2. By DR. BILL J. RELEFORD, D.P.M. A 2017 report DR. BILL J. RELEFORD, D.P.M. (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr66/nvsr66_06.pdf) on U.S. deaths, life expectancy, mortality rates, and trends published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) revealed that of any ethnic groups in the U.S., Black men had, and possibly still have the lowest life expectancy. Much of this gap is explained by increased rates of chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes afflicting the poor and often poorly educated Black men. But there is more to it. Lack of Black Male Physicians: A Health Risk Factor A new study recently published by the National Bureau for Economic Research has revealed the lack of Black physicians as another powerful force behind the low life expectancy of Black men in the U.S. In the study (https://www.nber.org/papers/w24787), researchers from California found that Black men were way more likely to agree to particular health tests and preventative measures if they saw a Black male doctor. It is worth noting that although 13 percent of the U.S. population is Black, only 4 percent of doctors are Black. The study involved 702 Black men from Oakland. The participants were not aware that the goal of the research was to find out whether or not race mattered when doctors attended to and advised patients, and as it emerged, the racial effect was not subtle. The men were randomly assigned to Black, Asian, or White male doctors. Cholesterol tests and diabetes screening were part of the health checks. The researchers found that 63 percent of the Black men that were assigned to a Black male doctor agreed to a diabetes screening while only 43 percent of those that saw an Asian or White doctor consented. Again, 62 percent of Black men that saw a

  3. g , p Black doctor consented to a cholesterol test. Only 36 percent of the Black men assigned to a non-Black doctor agreed to this test. The Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program Model As a practicing African American physician and founder of the Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program (BBHOP), I must say that our experience across the country is consistent with the findings of this study. Through our program, we have screened more than 30, 000 Black men for high blood pressure and diabetes across the country. While this figure isn’t as significant as you might expect, it makes a statement with regard to these study results. These findings agree with a survey we did in 2013. We saw that many Black men are diagnosed late and die more often from various diseases compared to other ethnic/racial groups (see report here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3758504/).This was attributed to, among other factors, mistrust of health care systems, cultural insensitivity, lack of knowledge/poor information, and low priority of health concerns. We strongly believe organizations such as BBHOP are an effective way of promoting awareness and referral for a variety of diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and prostate cancer, particularly for African American men. This is especially the case because, as we found — and now revealed by this new study — Black men are more open to Black male doctors. Black Physicians Are an Important Prescription So, perhaps the secret to keeping African American men healthy is having more Black male physicians. “I do not think I’ve ever had such strong results, so unambiguous,” said Dr. Alsan Marcella, commenting on the new study findings. Marcella is an associate professor at Stanford University Medical School. She authored the study. Dr. David Cutler, an applied economics professor at Harvard University, pointed out that the magnitude of the racial effect is too huge to be ignored. While White doctors may or may not have more success with Black male patients, the health care system should take heed now that researchers have shown that a doctor’s race could matter to his patients. Dr. Bill J. Releford, D.P.M. is founder of The Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program and serves as Medical Director, The Releford Foot and Ankle Institute. Instagram:@drreleford, Twitter: @breleford

  4. Share this: Facebook Twitter Google LinkedIn More      < > Compton Herald Compton Herald is a digital news publication providing clear, fair and current news, information and commentary about Compton, the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Los Angeles County, California, and the world. RELATED ARTICLES Bats lead in US deadly rabies risk How Racism Affects Health   SEP 08, 2019 0 0   AUG 14, 2019 0 0

  5. Healthy, affordable food options for students   JUL 17, 2019 0 0 NO COMMENTS Join the conversation! Enter your comment here... Enter your comment here... This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. LATEST NEWS Trumpublican Party: Their candidate will lose on Nov 3 JARRETTE FELLOWS, JR. - JANUARY 22, 2020 LA-native Allen Crabbe traded, again COMPTON HERALD - JANUARY 17, 2020 Cirque du Soleil Under the Big Top COMPTON HERALD - JANUARY 16, 2020

  6. Perspective: Census 2020 north, south of border JARRETTE FELLOWS, JR. - JANUARY 15, 2020 Preview Performance: Phillip Brandon COMPTON HERALD - JANUARY 14, 2020 Compton Herald is a digital media publication providing clear, fair and current news, information and commentary about Compton, the Los Angeles metropolitan area of California, and the world. 1217 W. Carson St., PMB 256 Torrance, CA 90502 310-908-9683 Categories Select Category View the Compton Herald.org Privacy Policy. FOLLOW US     Except where otherwise noted, photos on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International license.

  7. © Copyright 2018 Compton Herald / Metropolis Newspapers

More Related