HEALTH RISK

Health Risk Conditions of Afro-American Females

Health Risk Conditions of Afro-American Females

I am an adopted, 42 years old African American female. This paper discusses my medical health and several high risk conditions which I am more likely to face. It also discusses how theses how those conditions can be prevented. Many researchers in medical field are studying that females react in a different way than males to an amazingly wide range of medications and diseases. Moreover ethnicity and age are also some variables in this regard.

African Americans are an ethnically and culturally diverse group, and their cultural values and norms reflect this diversity. The rate of visual impairment and blindness among Afro-American Females is nearly twice that of whites. The proportion of women with elevated blood lead levels is 5.3 for Afro-American Females and only 1.5 for white Females. Afro-American Female were diagnosed with end ESRD (Stage Renal Disease) at a rate 3.9 times that of white Americans. The AIDS rate for every 100,000 Afro-American Female, was 22 times that of white women. (Gentry, 2007)

Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disorder. The disease seemingly targets females of childbearing age, that is between the ages of 16 and 40 and is three times more common in black women than white women. Sickled red blood cells have been found in 1 of every 12 African Americans; but the active disease occurs about once in every 600 American blacks and once in every 1,200 American whites. Women are more vulnerable to psychological disorders, such as depression, a serious affective disorder whereby the prevailing emotional mood interferes with quality of life and normal functioning. For African Americans, the incidence of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, cancer, asthma, and several other conditions is higher than the national average. Another area in which African Americans lag ...