Minority Health Awareness Month

Apr 18, 2011 by Brooke McMillan

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Cancer is the second leading cause of death for most racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, but for minority populations they are more likely to die from the disease due to lack of access to care and culturally relevant health education materials. Poor health outcomes for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders are apparent when comparing their health indicators against those of the rest of the U.S. population. Some alarming statistics about cancer in minority populations include:

• Although breast cancer is diagnosed 10% less frequently in African American women than White women, African American women are 36% more likely to die from the disease.
• American Indian Women are 1.6 times as likely to die from cervical cancer as compared to white women.
• Asian/Pacific Islander men and women have higher incidence and mortality rates for stomach and liver cancer.
• Hispanic women are twice as likely as non-Hispanic white women to be diagnosed with cervical cancer.

LIVESTRONG has taken many steps to assist minority populations so that we can close the access to care/education gap in the United States. A few of those steps include the creation and dissemination of our “Life After Cancer Brochure Series“. This series of brochures offers information about post-treatment life after cancer. The series has been created for:

• African-American
• American Indian/Alaska Native
• Hispanic/Latino in Spanish and English
• Asian American
• Pacific Islander
• Arabic
• Chinese
• Vietnamese

LIVESTRONG is also training health care professionals that help minority populations within the communities. The creation of the Promotores Project, a training curriculum for Hispanic health care workers, and expansion of the training program teaches over 700 Promotores about how to help people affected by cancer. We also serve thousands each year from all over the US through our “Navigation Services.

At LIVESTRONG we know that there is a need to support minority populations and be cognizant of how different people receive health information. It is our hope to continue and expand our work to address even more people.

Statistical information courtesy of The Office of Minority Health.