Health disparities plague minority men

New public health initiatives are aimed at drawing males, especially those who are minorities, into the health care fold.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. May 19, 2003.

Washington -- Actor Robert Guillaume didn't know what hit him one morning in January 1999 when he found himself floundering on the floor of his dressing room as he prepared to be called to the set to film a scene in a new Disney production.

The fact that he was having a stroke hadn't occurred to him until later when he was sitting on a hospital gurney. As a man who considered himself pretty savvy when it came to his health, he thinks he should have known more about his risk of stroke. But he didn't.

"I don't think it was denial," he said. "It might have been 'the show must go on.' "

Now he knows that he should have gotten himself to the hospital right away, he said at an April 29 press briefing on men's health. The event was sponsored by the American Public Health Assn. and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Likewise, Miami Heat basketball player Alonzo Mourning wasn't aware of the damage he was doing when he tried to treat his various sports-related aches and pains with a variety of over-the-counter pain relievers. He popped the tablets like they were candy, he said. Now he knows that the pain relievers probably aggravated a genetic kidney disease he didn't even realize he had.

Guillaume and Mourning, who are both black, believe they are typical of many minority men in failing to take responsibility for their health.

And they are probably right, agreed American Public Health Assn. Executive Director Georges Benjamin, MD. The May issue of the American Journal of Public Health is devoted almost entirely to men's health issues, particularly the health of minority men.