Category: Preventive Care
National Minority Health Month: Promoting Fair Access to Health
“Recognizing that health is the key to progress and equity in all other things,” said Tuskegee Institute founder Booker T. Washington, who proposed the observance of “National Negro Health Week” in 1915. Washington called on local health departments, schools, churches, businesses, professional associations, and the most influential organizations in the African American community to “pull Read More >
Posted on by 6 CommentsPromoting and Protecting the Health of Women: Saving Lives by Preventing Drug Overdoses
“Here’s your script”, the doctor said to me [Karin], as he handed me a refill for an opioid medication at a post-surgical follow-up visit. This action caught me off guard. I was fortunate that my pain had been short-lived and easily controlled, and I hadn’t finished the initial round of medications I was given. Thankfully, Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentPhysical Inactivity is More Common among Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Most States
Join Active People, Healthy NationSM to help more people become physically active. Too many adults are inactive, and inactivity levels differ notably by race and ethnicity. These facts make me all the more committed to the success of Active People, Healthy NationSM, CDC’s new initiative to make it easier for people to be physically active Read More >
Posted on by 2 CommentsMission Possible: Reducing Disparities in Preterm Births in the United States
In 2001, a woman was transported to a Georgia hospital in preterm labor. She delivered a baby boy at 34 weeks gestation, six weeks before her due date. However, before this baby’s early birth, she was given medications to help her baby’s lungs mature more rapidly, and to slow down the labor. After her baby Read More >
Posted on by 3 CommentsMission Possible: Addressing Health Disparities in Heart Disease and Stroke Outcomes
As the leading killer of Americans, heart disease and its associated behavioral causes are distributed throughout our country. Even so, some groups of people are more affected than others. Poverty and lack of education have long been associated with poorer health status and heart disease is no exception, occurring more frequently among people with lower Read More >
Posted on by 9 CommentsConfronting Cancer with Courage, Confidence, and a Caring Community
Overcast skies and a light drizzle of rain followed Charlotte as she returned to the doctor’s office to find out the results of the needle biopsy of her left breast. So confident that the “white spot” on the mammogram film reflected a small deposit of benign (noncancerous) calcium deposits, she didn’t even consider asking any Read More >
Posted on by 4 Comments“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired” (Fannie Lou Hamer, 1964) – Why we work to create pathways to health equity
Fannie Lou Hamer – voting rights activist, civil rights leader, and humanitarian, captured the nation’s attention during the 1964 Democratic National Convention, when she described the injustices she and others in her community had endured in their fight for the right to vote. She had been jailed, beaten, and threatened for her advocacy, but didn’t Read More >
Posted on by 7 Comments“I just didn’t want to hear any more bad news…”
Gathered in the parking lot of my hometown church, family and friends were “catching up” with each other before leaving the annual “Homecoming” service and dinner. While in the parking lot, I overheard a conversation between two cousins. One was sharing that she had attended two funerals the day before, and her husband had been Read More >
Posted on by 11 CommentsSilence as a Risk Factor for Health Disparities
Having been raised in the South by my grandmother, I was taught there were topics that were inappropriate to discuss in public. There often was a culture of silence around issues of sexuality, marital infidelity, homophobia and other forms of sexual difference, poverty, neglect and abuse, and specific health problems people were experiencing. It wasn’t Read More >
Posted on by 20 CommentsMoving From Skepticism To Expectation
As part of the celebration of this year’s National Public Health Week, I was invited to participate in a day of events sponsored by the College of Health and Human Services at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte (UNCC). We began the day with Charlotte Talks – a local radio talk show – discussing the Read More >
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