Making a case for the examination of ethnicity of Blacks in United States Health Research

Abstract

Important differences between Blacks of different ethnicities in the U.S. in chronic disease morbidity and mortality have been reported. Blacks in the U.S. constitute a heterogeneous group, including immigrants from Africa, Caribbean nations, Central and South America, as well as people now known as African Americans. Ethnicity among Blacks is seldom examined in health research, although in-depth examination of the ethnicity and culture-related pathways through which psychosocial factors may act to influence health have the potential to improve our understanding of health disparities. This improved understanding could in turn lead to the development of new, innovative, culturally based interventions that may reduce health disparities in the U.S. We briefly review the literature that examines Black ethnicity and birthplace, health outcomes, health-related knowledge and behaviors, and health-related psychological and social factors. We present a conceptual framework to aid in understanding the links between these factors and health. Suggestions are offered for conducting research in the future.

Which College Students Are at Higher Health Risk?

“…Health behavior, sources of health information, education, and access to health insurance also vary among different Black ethnicities (Arthur & Katkin, 2006). Caribbean-and Haitian-born participants were significantly less likely than U.S.-born participants to report having ever smoked.…”

“…Blacks in the United States constitute a heterogeneous group including immigrants from Africa, Caribbean nations, and Central and South America (Arthur & Katkin, 2006 (Logan, 2003). It is important to identify the cultural differences between multiethnic Blacks because they differ in education, income, health indicators, health knowledge, and cultural health practices-all which have implications for successful health promotion planning (Magnus, 2004).…”

“…A growing body of research indicates that chronic disease morbidity and mortality, mental-health related issues, general health status, health-related behaviors, and health literacy vary among Black ethnic groups-African Americans, Black immigrants from Africa, Caribbean nations, Central and South America (Arthur & Katkin, 2006). Foreign born Blacks had lower rates of cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory, infectious disease, injury mortality; hypertension, and obesity than U.S.-born Blacks.…”

The Epidemiology of Prostate Cancer Among Multiethnic Men

“…Studies show that the longer immigrants live in their host county, the more likely they are to engage in primary prevention activities such as cancer screening [19,92]. The men in this NHIS sample however, did not seem to follow this trend.…”

What to make of race? : a content analysis of the use of race in health research.

“…They argue that ethnicity is real because it pertains to shared common origins culture, language, religion, work, behavior, and knowledge passed from one generation to the next. This differs from the term race, which uses phenotypic variations between groups as its foundation (Agyemang et aI, 2005;Arthur and Katkin, 2006;Bradby, 1995) and raised in the United States will have a different cultural background than an African descendent born person from the Caribbean, and these differences between the two populations can produces distinctive health outcomes (Arthur and Katkin, 2006;Bradby, 1995). Carlotta Arthur and Edward Katkin (2006) found that differences in cultural background could also produce psychosocial differences due to an individual's exposure to racism.…”