J Natl Med Assoc
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Comparative Study
Overweight and obesity in black women: a review of published data from the National Center for Health Statistics.
Overweight is a major health problem for black women in the United States. The age-adjusted prevalence of overweight was 47.1 percent in 1960-1962, 46.8 percent in 1971-1974, and 48.1 percent in 1976-1980 for black women aged 25 to 74 years, much higher than that of white women or men of either race. Black women born in later decades tended to be more overweight than those born earlier. ⋯ Overweight was inversely related to family income and education. Rural and southern women were more overweight than their urban, northern, and western counterparts. More research is needed upon which to base efforts to control and prevent overweight in black women.
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After 10 years of admitting greater numbers of black medical students to North Carolina medical schools, the current study examined perceptions of four classes of black students attending these medical schools. One objective of this study was to gain a sense of how black students perceived the medical school environment. Another objective was to determine those students' levels of negative reactions generated by interactions with faculty and peers. Some of the major findings indicated that black students generally had negative perceptions of the medical school environments, and much of their reported negativism was associated with perceptions of student and white faculty interactions.
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A descriptive epidemiologic study of Chicago's cancer rates during the present decade reveals that the worst cancer mortality rates occur among Chicago's black population. Blacks represent a large percentage of Chicago's total population and a disproportionately high segment of the low socioeconomic group. ⋯ This same trend is being observed nationally; however, only a few studies have been documented. The Chicago Department of Health recognized the magnitude of this problem in 1980 and initiated this ongoing study of cancer deaths in the city in an attempt to improve these rates in this decade.
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Thirty-one black medical students attending five white medical schools were seen in individual interviews of one to two hours to evaluate their perceptions of racism in their medical school education. The interviews focused on racism experienced in high school, college, and medical school. ⋯ The students reported a variety of methods of coping with racist experiences and emphasized the importance of fellow minority students, faculty, and the minority office in coping with the stresses of racist experiences. Those offering counseling services to minority students should recognize the reality of racist experiences in medical education.