Disparities in care demonstrated by liver disease rates

An AMA-sponsored meeting takes on these diseases as examples of the divergent health outcomes that can exist among minorities and whites.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. May 1, 2006.

Washington -- Health disparities aren't disappearing. Blacks, Hispanics and American Indians are at least twice as likely to have diabetes as whites; blacks are twice as likely to have hepatitis C as whites but much less likely to be referred for a needed liver transplant; and minority populations overall continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden of death and disability from cardiovascular disease.

Since many members of minority groups also contract these diseases earlier than do whites, their lives are often shortened by 10 or more years from what should be expected. Life expectancy rates for black men in particular continue to lag well behind those for whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Don't children deserve to know their grandparents?" asked B. Waine Kong, PhD, CEO of the Assn. of Black Cardiologists. Dr. Kong was speaking at the Third Annual Leadership Summit on Health Disparities held April 11-12 in Washington, D.C. The summit was sponsored by the AMA and the National Minority Health Month Foundation to focus on ways to close the health care gap.

"Raising awareness and implementing evidence-based solutions are important steps toward ending inequality in health care," said AMA President J. Edward Hill, MD. "Our nation's physicians must strive to ensure that all patients receive the highest quality of health care."

The AMA has joined with several other medical groups to encourage physicians to examine their own practices to ensure that they provide equal care to all patients.