“What causes all this sickness?” [Byllye Avery] asked. “Like cardiovascular disease—it’s the number one killer [of Black women]. What causes all that heart pain?” She answered herself by linking the physical maladies of Black women to the male violence that kept them in a lifelong state of emotional distress. “When sisters take their shoes off and start talking about what’s happening, the first thing we cry about is violence,” she explained. “The number one issue for most of our sisters is violence—battering, sexual abuse. Same thing for their daughters, whether they are twelve or four” African American women's health in the US is continuously shown to be far worse than that of any other group of women in any other racial or ethnic group. Currently, African American women have higher rates of morbidity regarding health issues like
obesity,
diabetes, and adverse birth outcomes. African American women are also more likely to die from certain cancers,
cardiovascular disease and
HIV/AIDS. There are many different factors intertwined within our society that contribute to these
health disparities, many of which reflect on the effects of experienced racism on day to day lives. Some factors that contribute to the health disparities within the community of African American women in the US are related to one’s sociodemographic status, sexual orientation, geographic location and age. Research has shown that income and higher education are strongly correlated to one’s overall health, along with showing that African American women who make a higher income experience improved cardiovascular health. Education has also been found to be strongly correlated with improved health outcomes within African American women. This reflects the idea that there are three levels of racism that continue to affect one’s physical health. These levels consist of institutionalized racism, personally mediated racism, and internalized racism. These levels of racism have a direct contribution to women's health, as it was found that foreign-born mothers were more likely to be older, married, and better educated. Foreign born women were also shown to have better pre-pregnancy weight along with having higher rates of prenatal care than those born in the US. It was also found that foreign born mothers were less likely to give birth prematurely. Many of these health issues stem from the fact that African American women are less likely than a white woman to receive many of the needed health services, including routine preventative care. In the past five decades, African American women have experienced a risk that is 4-times greater regarding death from pregnancy complications than a white woman. Four out of five African American women are considered to be overweight or obese. One in four African American women aged 55 and up are affected by diabetes, making them almost 2 times more likely to have diabetes than white women. It was also discovered that statistically white women reported receiving more prenatal advice on alcohol, smoking and the importance of breast-feeding than African American women. African American women were also found to be 23 times more likely to die from preexisting health issues like preeclampsia, eclampsia, abruptio placentae, placenta previa, and postpartum hemorrhage than white women. African American women reportedly have significantly less trust in their own physicians due to past experiences in our health-care system. It was also shown that African American women have higher levels of trust in informal health informational sources, some which may not be factually based. ==Aims==