Health

Closing the Health Gap between Older African Americans and Whites

When it comes to the health of older adults in our country, the African American segment of our nation’s senior population is at a distinct disadvantage. “In general, African Americans suffer from more chronic diseases and have a shorter life expectancy than their white counterparts,” says Mona Fouad, MD, UAB professor of medicine. “We need more programs that will be aimed at addressing quality of care and quality of life issues for the aging African American population.”

Dr. Fouad explains that African Americans have higher rates of life-threatening diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. “These diseases also start much earlier in African Americans than in the white population, but are diagnosed much later in the course of the disease. This leads to worse outcomes and shorter life spans for the African American group.”

She stresses that access to care is an important underlying reason that older African Americans’ overall health status is below that of white Americans. “We know, for example, that with respect to cancer care, African Americans are much less likely to use palliative care, pain management, and hospice care than older whites,” says Dr. Fouad. “A critical reason for this could be lack of knowledge about the availability of these services, which is an access to care issue.”

Dr. Fouad explains that several important factors — called social determinants of health — influence a person’s ability to access health care. “These factors include the geographic region in which you live, family support, educational level, socio-economic standing, and race or ethnicity. All of these can be underlying causes of health disparities for African Americans and for the entire elderly population as well.”

Dr. Fouad emphasizes that more research is needed to identify the issues, barriers, and needs of older African Americans regarding access to health care. “For example, we need to understand their social networks and sources of information. Then, we can develop better ways of communicating to this group about health care because we’ll have critical information about how to best frame and deliver the message.”

She says that the health gap between older African Americans and whites can be closed only when barriers to accessing health care are identified and removed. “We must develop new programs and services aimed at removing impediments to care so that older African Americans can take full advantage of the advanced health care system our nation has to offer.”