• Diabetes — a condition that increases the risk of kidney disease, heart disease, eye and foot problems and other health complications — is 60 percent more common in African American women compared with white women.
  
• High blood pressure is also more frequent among African American women, increasing the risks of stroke and heart disease.
  
• Obesity affects more than half of all adult African American women. It carries with it an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, respiratory disorders, arthritis, and some cancers.
  
• Kidney disease disproportionately affects African American women, often as a complication of high blood pressure or diabetes.
  
• Arthritis is more prevalent and leads to more activity limitations in African American women compared with white women.
  
• HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects African American women, and is a leading cause of death for African American women between the ages of 25 and 44.
  
• Lupus, an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks its own health tissues and organs, is more than twice as common in African American women compared with white women.
  
• Breast cancer, although more prevalent in white women, is more likely to lead to death when it affects African American women.
  
• Maternal mortality and infant mortality among African Americans are five and 2.5 times greater, respectively, than the national average.

You can find out more about African American Women's health by contacting the following organizations:

Office of Minority Health Resource Center, (800) 444-6472

National Black Women's Health Project, (202) 835-0117

African-American Breast Cancer Alliance, (612) 825-3675

Caribbean Women's Health Association, (718) 826-2942

From the Office on Women's Health in the Department of Health and Human Services

Current as of August 13, 2002