Community Population Health Issues Breast

Community Population Health Issues

Breast cancer among the African-American community is a serious health problem because African-American women are disproportionately likely to die of breast cancer, despite having a lower overall risk of developing breast cancer than white women (American Cancer Society, 2013). This is an interesting issue because it highlights a community population health issue. Some community populations are more likely to develop a health problem than other populations, so that genetic factors or environmental factors may be linked to that illness. In the case of African-American women and their risk of breast cancer, it does not appear that genetics or environment place them at higher risk of developing the disease. Instead, it seems that something in the community intervenes to make breast cancer more deadly in the African-American community. In fact, "Black women still have a disproportionately higher breast cancer death rate - 41% higher than white women. This finding is based on 2005 to 2009 data, showing that even though African-American women have a lower incidence of breast cancer, they are more likely to die of this disease than women in any other racial or ethnic group" (Landau, 2012). Understanding what is responsible for this increased death risk is a critical factor if one wants to improve overall community health.

The reasons that breast cancer is more deadly in the African-American community are complex. One of the major reasons is because African-American women are less likely to be diagnosed in early stage than women in other ethnic groups. It is well-established that the earlier breast cancer is detected, the better the survival rates. Therefore, the fact that African-American women are not as likely to be diagnosed in early stages of cancer helps explain why they are more likely to die of breast cancer than women in other ethnic groups. Therefore, it becomes critical to understand why African-American women do not reap the same benefit from early detection as other ethnic groups.

One interesting element is that African-American women are less likely to have mammograms than white women. In addition, even African-American women who have mammograms may do so less frequently than white women, so that longer periods of time pass between screenings (Landau, 2012). However, fewer and less frequent mammograms do not fully explain the problems. Furthermore, "Once a woman receives abnormal mammography results, it takes longer for her to get a diagnosis if she's black than if she's white" (Landau, 2012). Therefore, increasing mammograms and their frequency should help reduce the death rate, but the lack of access and use of them is probably linked to financial factors given the link between race and socio-economic status.