It is common knowledge that men and women have different life expectancies. Statistics in 2004 shows white women in the United States could expect to live to 80.8 years, compared to 75.7 years for white men (1). However, did you know that life expectancy for black males at birth is only 69.8 years and for black females was 76.5 years at birth?

What is contributing to the shorter life expectancy of African Americans? If we look at the prevalence of and mortality rates for major diseases, we can see distinct differences.

HIV/AIDS
In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that African Americans, who make up approximately 13% of the US population, accounted for half of the HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed (see Figure 1, below).

By the end of 2004, African-American men accounted for approximately 30% of the total adolescents and adults living with HIV/AIDS, AIDS, or HIV infection in the US (2). African-American females comprised 17% of the total adolescents and adults with the same condition.

In 2004, the estimated rates of AIDS cases were 99.4 per 100,000 among non-Hispanic black men, and 48.2 per 100,000 among non-Hispanic black women. For the non-Hispanic white population, the estimated rates were 12.3 per 100,000 for males and 7.1 for females.

Figure 1: Race/ethnicity of persons (including children) with HIV/AIDS diagnosed during 2004 (3).

High Blood Pressure
In 1999-2002, the prevalence of high blood pressure (hypertension) in African-American males 20 years or older was 28.2%, compared to 17.6% for white males in the same age group. The high blood pressure prevalence was 28.9% among African-American females and 18.5% among white females (4).

The age-adjusted mortality resulting from high blood pressure in 2003 was 49.7 per 100,000 for black males, in comparison to 14.9 per 100,000 for white males (5). Among black females the age-adjusted death rate was 40.8 per 100,000 in comparison to 14.5 per 100,000 for white females.

Diabetes
The African-American population is disproportionately affected by diabetes. In the U.S., 11.4% of all non-Hispanic blacks aged 20 years or older have diabetes, and African Americans are twice more likely to have type 2 diabetes as whites of similar age (6). In 2004, the diabetes prevalence was 7.6 per 100 persons among African-American men and 5.1 per 100 persons among white males. Similarly, the diabetes prevalence among the female population was 7.8 per 100 persons for blacks and 4.3 per 100 persons for whites.

Figure 2 (below) demonstrates the trend of the diabetes prevalence among white, blacks, and Hispanics by sex in 1980-2004. African Americans appear to have consistently higher rates than other racial/ethnic groups, and have raised serious health concerns over these years.


Figure 2: Age-adjusted prevalence of diagnosed diabetes by race/ethnicity and sex, 1980–2004 (7).

Infant Mortality
Discrepancies in mortality and morbidity between racial/ethnic populations also emerge in the early age stage.

During 2000-2004 in the United States, the infant mortality rate (IMR) for white babies was 5.7 per 1,000 live births. The rate for African-American newborns was 13.5 per 1,000 live births and for American Indian babies it was 8.7 per 1,000 live births.

While Wisconsin’s overall IMR has consistently been lower than that of the national rate, significant disparities in IMR are found between white and other racial/ethnic populations. For example, race-stratified data indicate that African-American infants consistently have threefold higher death rates than white infants. In 2004, the black IMR reached 19.2 per 1,000 live births, a historical high and 4.3 times the rate of the white infant (see Figure 3, below) (8).


Figure 3: Wisconsin infant mortality rate by race/ethnicity, 2004 (8).

References

1. Miniño, A.M., Heron, M., Smith, B.L. Deaths: Preliminary data for 2004. Health E-Stats. Released April 19, 2006, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/prelimdeaths04/preliminarydeaths04.htm
   
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, 2004. Vol. 16. Atlanta: US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2005.
   
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fact Sheet: HIV/AIDS among African Americans: Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved on August 25, 2006, from http:// www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/aa/resources/factsheets/aa.htm
   
4. National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2005 with chartbook on trends in the health of Americans. Hyattsville, MD: November 2005.
   
5. American Heart Association. High blood pressure statistics. Retrieved on June 1, 2006, from http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4621
   
6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Diabetes: Data & Trends. Retrieved on May 29, 2006, from http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics/prev/national/index.htm
   
7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data and trends: Prevalence of diabetes. Retrieved on May 29, 2006, from http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics/prev/national/figraceethsex.htm
   
8. Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services. Wisconsin interactive statistics on health (WISH) data query system: Infant mortality module. Retrieved on June 15, 2006, from http://dhfs.wisconsin.gov/wish/