Highlights from Women of Color Health Data Book, Fourth Edition

摘要

The acquisition of quality care and the resulting health outcomes for women of color are shaped by various socio-cultural-economic factors. These include the physical and social environments (especially for American Indians or Alaska Natives, Hispanics, and African Americans), linguistic isolation (especially Asian Americans, Latinos, and Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders), and racism (especially African Americans and Asian Americans). Although some women of color (black and American Indian or Alaska Native) have shorter life expectancies than do white non-Hispanic women, Asian women, Hispanic women, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander women have life expectancies equal to or greater than that of white non-Hispanic women. Despite declining death rates from heart disease over the past 60 years, diseases of the heart remain the number one cause of death among white women, black women, and women of all racial and ethnic groups combined. Heart disease is the second major cause of death, however, among women who are Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native.