Did You Know, Colorado? April 30, 2014 Minority Health Month

• The "CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report — United States, 2013" highlights disparities in deaths and illness, use of health care, behavioral risk factors for disease, environmental hazards, and social determinants of health at the national level. Select findings include:

• In the United States, blacks have a shorter healthy life expectancy than whites. Non-Hispanic black adults are at least 50% more likely to die of heart disease or stroke prematurely (i.e., before age 75 years) than their non-Hispanic white counterparts. The infant mortality rate for non-Hispanic blacks is more than double the rate for non-Hispanic whites.
• Racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in the prevalence and incidence rate of diagnosed diabetes persist in the U.S. adult population. But some improvements occurred from 2006 to 2010, e.g., significant improvements were noted for prevalence of diagnosed diabetes among non-Hispanic black women compared with non-Hispanic white women.
• Non-Hispanic blacks had a higher rate of hypertension (41.3%) than non-Hispanic whites (28.6%) and Hispanics (27.7%). The rate of controlled blood pressure was lower among Hispanics (34.4%) and non-Hispanic blacks (42.5%) than non-Hispanic whites (52.6%).