Blacks more likely to die of lung cancer than whites. Researchers have found that Black patients living in segregated counties have a lung cancer mortality rate about 10 percentage points higher than those living in diverse neighborhoods. When looking at specific counties, the researchers found that the mortality rate of white lung-cancer patients remained steady between diverse and predominantly white countiesbetween about 50 percent and 53 percent. Rates were comparable for Black patients living in diverse counties. But Black patients living in highly segregated counties had a mortality rate of about 63 percent. Black patients living in moderately segregated areas had a mortality rate of 57 percent.
ADHD among Black girls rose 90 percent from 20012010. White children had the highest diagnosis rates, according to a Kaiser Permanente study, but Black children showed the greatest increase in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) incidence, from 2.6 percent of all Black children 5 to 11 years old in 2001 to 4.1 percent in 2010, a 70 percent relative increase. Latino children showed a 60 percent relative increase.
J. Nadine Gracia appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health. Dr. Gracia will also head the Office of Minority Health (OMH) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The office is dedicated to improving the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate health disparities. Dr. Gracia, who has served as Acting OMH Director since November 2011, plays a key role in the administration’s Affordable Care Act outreach to underserved communities nationwide, and also leads the implementation of the HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and the National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities.
