Race and health

[Quita]

 I have wanted to ask this question... so here goes

I have attended the seminars on race and fully understand how this concept of race came about. I am working on my dissertation and the literature that I am reading refer to race as a characteristics that is a determinant of specific risk factors (high blood pressure, obesity, kidney disease, depression). When statistics were run on a study similiar to the one I am working on it  "showed" that there was a significant difference of a particular illness relative to "race"  Additionally the investigator looked at age, income, etc.

 

These descriptive analyses are done so clinicians know what population or individual to target for disease prevention/teaching, etc.... in hopes that we can eradicate illness incidence/prevalence in a certain population.

 

 In my practice I see that folks of my skin color and darker are plagued with diseases like kidney failure, hypertension(high blood pressure), stroke, obesity, and diabetes at a disproportional rate than other "colors" of people. What are your thoughts on race relative to health/health outcomes.

[R Herelle]

Race is secondary to lifestyle.  Simply put, it's a choice.  Take control of the choices we make - making the best choice out of the options (few or many) we may have because regardless of the controls used to determine high risk populations,

Negroids, Caucasoids, and Mongoids all have illnesses and diseaseas - and if you are void of illness and disease now, don't think that you are immune - your time will come.

[Clifford Black]

Namaska Hawk---NO PROBLEM, we are together---keep on thinking---keep on sharing!!!!!!!!

(B).

[Eric D. Jenkins]

my apologies dr black, i let my feelings get the best of me (again).. the sickness i see regurlarly grows on me

[Clifford Black]

@Hawk---Fec from the word fecundate is the same word as fuck sooooo if u would moderate the language that we use it will show that u are a very tolerant person---all of the people who use this site are not as astute about words as u have become soooooo and since we may have some children visitors we want to be careful with how we introduce others to what they may conceive as vulgar ---Peace God!!!!

(B)

[Eric D. Jenkins]

ignorance and hopelessness are major contributors to this health issue.. some dont know and others dont give a fuck

[Quita]

Thank you Mr. B.

[Clifford Black]

@Quitah & Bro. Mwanze---the reply that dissapeared said pretty much the same thing that Mwanze has suggested to us about statistics, usually whatever agency that is paying for the information gets whatever information in the form that it is wanted  I want to thank you for this dialog and I hope it will help others to gain the kind of insight that is needed so much and by so many......(B)

[Quita]

At Bro Mwanze,

 

That is a good question. There was no control for diet, but controls for economic status(income) and education(formal).

I  personally do not know of an instrument/survey that looks into diet; if you do please share.

At any rate,  race is the first thing many consider when trying to show signifance of anything relative to health.

 

Specifically I will look at quality of life(qol) relative to the role of being a caregiver of an ill person. The studies "show" that being "black" plays a factor in high vs low qol. I would love to factor in many things, but since I am doing a secondary analysis(as many do) I can only use the data that the previous investigator used.

 

 

 

 

[Bro. Mwanze]

Quitah, statistics can be used in a way to paint any picture I choose to support.  What if instead of so-called black people the study looked at the people that ate regularly at McDonald's or Church's chicken,etc. and compared them to the people that ate at Pizza Hut or Chili's.  Whatever the results one could interpret them to color just about any portrait desired by the investigators. I'm not even suggesting that the results are in error; there are many more factors that bring populations to share common health patterns that have little to do with skin color.  Generations of diet, stress and low self-esteem will invariably show patterns of dis-ease and related illness.  Was there any controls that looked at persons of similar patterns of behavior, diet, economic status, education, etc across all persons of so-called different races and genetic origins?  I'd be interested in the data from a well controlled study that did not skewed itself around skin color.

[Quita]

Hey Al!