African American Women From Breast Cancer

815 Words2 Pages

As of today, there are many programs and efforts being made that have either already decreased the gap or are attempting to bring change to the problem of increased deaths of African American women from breast cancer. One example is a study that was done in Massachusetts that gave low-income African American women aged 50-70 resources and education for six years, and it was “concluded that the Massachusetts program appeared to mitigate the disadvantages of living in high-poverty neighborhoods” for the incidence of breast cancer in that specific area (Cunningham 595). This study shows that these women need help that has not been previously provided to them in order to reduce the disparity. In this regard, the role of affordable health care needs to be available in order to decrease this problem. The same study showed that “among women without health insurance, disproportionately large numbers are [older African Americans], providing an explanation for high rates of advanced stage cancers at presentation among [African American] women in general” (Cunningham 594). If women are to be able to access affordable screenings, affordable health care must also be provided. Once again, this brings in the role of government in the lives of African American women. Federally qualified health centers offer preventative health care and screenings for a reduced or free cost to women of low socio-economic status, many of which happened to be African American women at a particular clinic, and it was found that the incidence of breast cancer in that community was reduced from the rates that were established previously (Adams 640). Therefore, if low-income women are to be able to access quality health care, then there must be more federally qualified ... ... middle of paper ... ...in to treat African American women as a whole instead of patient X, then there will be a change in the rate of deaths among African American women with breast cancer. However, these women must also decide to trust those providers and receive pre-screenings in order to be proactive about their own health, and the government needs to actively provide affordable ways for women to receive these screenings. There is plenty of evidence available that shows the problems with African American women dying from breast cancer, so people must be educated and aware of the problem in order to bring about a change in society. As Louis Giglio once said, “awareness brings about action, and action brings about change,” and hopefully, people will use this information to bring about awareness to ripple into change for African American women aged 40-80 especially regarding breast cancer.

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