J Natl Med Assoc
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The status of dental health in the American population has significantly improved during the past 15 years. The prevalence of dental diseases is similar in children when racial comparisons are made. ⋯ Therefore, true differences between races may be even more marked when jobless adults are included. This omission is especially significant for blacks, where unemployment rates are twice those of whites, and this subgroup has not been included in the most recent national survey.
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To analyze Afro-American ethnomedical beliefs and practices concerning disease and health care, the author investigated the health-care-seeking behavior among 285 Afro-Americans and 178 Euro-Americans in the Detroit metropolitan area with respect to hypertension. Hypertension was chosen because more than 60 million individuals in the United States have elevated blood pressure (140/90 mmHg or greater). ⋯ In addition to these ethnohealth and ethnocaring modes, the decisive sociocultural factors in the utilization of the health screening were (1) the health beliefs of the extended lay network, (2) the type of health facility, (3) the lifestyle and behavioral patterns of Detroiters from 1910 to the present, and (4) the adherence to traditional Afro-American cultural beliefs. Once health care professionals recognize the multitude of factors that affect health-care-seeking behavior among Afro-Americans, many health care issues can be resolved.