Health Disparities

More American mothers are breastfeeding their babies, the CDC recently reported.

Yet the percentage of African-American women breastfeeding, while rising, lags behind that of other racial and ethnic groups.

And Georgia and the Southeast have among the poorest breastfeeding rates, say Emory University researchers.

In this video, Emory experts Maeve Howett and Laura Gaydos talk about why breastfeeding is important for the health of both the child and the mother.

They also discuss the reasons why the rates for  black women are lower, and the need for workplace support and lactation consults that help women with breastfeeding.

Here’s a link to the video, courtesy of Emory.

A study involving Atlanta and five other U.S. cities shows that young black men who are gay or bisexual have greatly elevated HIV infection rates.

Researchers found that the overall rate of new HIV infections among black men having sex with men was 2.3 percent per year, nearly 50 percent higher than the rate for white men who are gay or bisexual.

The results, released last week at the International Conference on AIDS, also found that black gay and bisexual men 30 years old and younger acquired HIV infection at a rate of 5.9 percent per year, three times the rate among U.S. white gay or bisexual men of the same age bracket.

Emory University recruited nearly 300 black men for the study.

Human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is the virus that causes AIDS. Georgia has among the highest HIV infection rates in the country.

Another Emory study of gay and bisexual men living in Atlanta reported the HIV interim incidence of 6.4 percent among Atlanta black gay and bisexual men.

In this GHN video interview, Paula Frew, an Emory assistant professor of medicine, discusses the findings of both studies, the possible reasons for these health disparities, and the interventions that can help reduce the HIV transmission rates.

The video is courtesy of Emory University.

More than a decade ago, the first U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on oral health outlined a “silent epidemic” of dental and oral diseases in the nation.

Dental problems affected large numbers of children and adults, and were also linked to major health conditions, said the landmark report, released in 2000. Dr. David Satcher, who was surgeon general at the time and produced the report, said poor Americans and children were especially vulnerable, and that members of racial and ethnic groups had a disproportionate level of oral health problems.

Satcher, reflecting on that data 12 years later, says progress has been made in improving access to dental care, including in Georgia.

Satcher added Tuesday that the oral health report led to increased funding for dental schools and the creation of oral health research centers.

But he said, “We still have a long way to go in this country’’ on access to dental care.

Satcher spoke to an Atlanta audience of dental professionals and health officials at a conference sponsored by Morehouse School of Medicine. Speakers outlined the extent of the dental care problem and possible solutions, both for the nation and for Georgia. full story

Almost half of the more than 850,000 Hispanics in Georgia lack health insurance, a much higher rate than the national average, a new report finds.

The Georgia Latino Health Report 2012, released Thursday, says 47 percent of Hispanics in the state are uninsured, versus 31 percent nationally. And just 29 percent in Georgia have employer-sponsored health insurance, as compared with 37 percent in the U.S.

The insurance gap may be linked, in part, to the concentration of Georgia’s Hispanics in the construction and service industries — sectors that often don’t offer coverage to employees, said Karen Andes of Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health, and lead author of the Latino health report.

The report, released at the Latino Health Summit held at Emory, is the most comprehensive look yet at the Latino population and its health status in Georgia. The summit was sponsored by the Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia.

A major shift in Latino health care occurred after the recession began, the report said. Many Latinos work in industries deeply hurt by the downturn. In addition, Georgia’s new immigration law has discouraged immigrants from seeking medical treatment, the report said.

The population of Hispanics in Georgia has grown eightfold since 1990, though that increase slowed in the past decade, the Latino health report found. Hispanics represented 8.8 percent of the state’s population in 2010.

“This is a population we can’t continue to ignore,’’ Andes said. Fifty-eight percent of Latinos in Georgia are U.S. citizens. And 87 percent of Hispanic children are citizens, the report found.

Their health status is worse than that of their white and black peers in several categories. full story

A recent CDC report gets to the heart of why we should care about asthma.

The federal health agency reported last week that the prevalence of the chronic airway disorder reached an all-time high of 8.4 percent in 2010.

And the children of Georgia have a higher rate of the chronic airway disorder than the national average.

It’s a costly chronic disease that affects 25 million Americans, including 7 million children. That’s one in every 12 Americans.

The financial toll in the United States, the CDC reported, is $56 billion annually, which includes medical expenses and loss of productivity from missed school days and workdays.

The cause of asthma is unknown, and there is no cure. Symptoms include coughing, shortness of breath or trouble breathing, wheezing, and tightness or pain in the chest.

In Georgia, according to 2008 statistics, adults have roughly the same rates as the national average. But the state’s children have a higher asthma rate, with a current prevalence of 12.1 percent, compared with other states’ rate of 9 percent.

And there are significant racial health disparities with the disease as well.

Nationally, and in Georgia, the prevalence of asthma among African-Americans is much higher than for whites. full story