Topic: Cultural Competence
Strokes in African Americans
Strokes in African Americans Most strokes in African Americans occur due to high blood pressure and a much higher number of African Americans have uncontrolled blood pressure. A quarter of all strokes occur in the presence of atrial fibrillation (a fib)…
Heart Failure in African Americans
Heart failure in African-Americans occurs more often and is more deadly. African Americans have a significantly higher risk and earlier onset of heart failure and heart-related death compared to all other populations in the United States. In fact, African Americans are two…
Establishing Trust When Patients Distrust Doctors
Distrust Doctors ?? Multiple studies over an extended period of time confirm what most doctors and providers already knew, African Americans are more likely to distrust doctors and other healthcare providers than patients of other racial or ethnic groups. What…
Kidney Disease in African Americans
Kidney disease in African Americans is one the most dramatically different occurrences of a disease, and results in significant suffering and death. Generally, kidney disease is the result of diabetes and high blood pressure, and given the increased number of…
Atrial Fibrillation in African Americans
Atrial fibrillation in African Americans, also called "A Fib", effects one in nine before the age of 80 and is the most prevalent arrhythmia in the US and is associated with significant bad outcomes that include stroke, heart failure, and increased…
Prostate Cancer in African American Men
Prostate cancer in African American men is more deadly, occurs more often, and can be easily detected by a blood test called a "prostate specific antigen" or "PSA." Yet many doctors have been advised against checking for this cancer because…
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study (originally called "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male") was originally formed to record the natural history of syphilis with the hope of justifying the funding of public treatment programs for African Americans. The…
Historical Reasons for African American Distrust of Doctors
Stephen Kenny, University of Liverpool The history of human experimentation is as old as the practice of medicine and in the modern era has always targeted disadvantaged, marginalized, institutionalized, stigmatized and vulnerable populations: prisoners, the condemned, orphans, the mentally ill,…
