A collection of important essays on the health and well-being of African Americans in the southern United States. For African Americans in the southern United States, the social determinants of health are influenced by a unique history that encompasses hundreds of years of slavery, injustices during the Jim Crow era, the Great Migration, the Civil Rights era, and contemporary experiences like the Black Lives Matter movement. In Black Health in the South, editors Steven S. Coughlin, Lovoria B. Williams, and Tabia Henry Akintobi bring together essays on this important subject from top public health experts. Black activists, physicians, and communities continue to battle inequities and structural problems that include poverty, inadequate access to health care, incarceration, a lack of transportation, and food insecurity. As the result of redlining and other historical and contemporary injustices, African Americans are less likely to own a home or to have equity, which places them in danger of financial ruin if they experience an illness such as a heart attack, stroke, or cancer, for which they are often at greater risk due to many social and environmental factors. At the same time, African American communities display many strengths and are often very resilient against these structural inequities. The use of community coalitions is a valuable approach for addressing health disparities in African American communities, and improving the cultural competence of health care providers further reduces the effects of health disparities. With essays spanning topics from culturally appropriate health care to faith-based interventions and the role of research networks in addressing disparities, this collection is pivotal for understanding the health of African Americans in the South. Public health scholars have examined racial disparities in health in the United States broadly and in specific cities, but this is the first edited collection to focus on African Americans in the South both as a whole and as a distinct population.
Steven S. Coughlin (AUGUSTA, GA) is a professor and interim Chief of the Division of Epidemiology at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. He is the author of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Chronic Diseases and the Handbook of Community-Based Participatory Research. Lovoria B. Williams (LEXINGTON, KY) is an associate professor at the University of Kentucky College of Nursing. She is the Associate Director of Cancer Health Equity at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center. Tabia Henry Akintobi (MABLETON, GA) is a professor and chair of Community Health and Preventive Medicine, an Associate Dean of Community Engagement, and the Principal Investigator of the Prevention Research Center at Morehouse School of Medicine. She is the coauthor of The Morehouse Model: How One School of Medicine Revolutionized Community Engagement and Health Equity.
Contributors Preface PART I: FOUNDATION 1. Overview of the Health of African Americans in the Southern United States, by Steven S. Coughlin, Lovoria B. Williams, and Tabia Henry Akintobi 2. Racism and Health: Implications for Health Disparities among African Americans, by Steven S. Coughlin, Lovoria B. Williams, Ryan A. Harris, and Gaston Kapuku 3. Access to Quality, Culturally Appropriate Heathcare, by Brittney T. Anderson PART II: METHODS 4. Health Intervention Studies as an Important Tool to Address the Health of African Americans, by Casey L. Daniel and Yendelela L. Cuffee 5. Faith-based Interventions to Address the Health of African Americans, by Charlton Coles and Veronica Parker 6. The Role of Clinical/Community Based Research Networks in Addressing Health Disparities, by Lufei Young PART III: HEALTH DISPARITIES 7. Hypertension among African Americans, by Georgiana Logan 8. Myocardial Infarction among African Americans in the Southern United States, by Anna Kucharska-Newton 9. Chronic Kidney Disease and End-Stage Kidney Disease among African Americans, by Jasmine T. Washington, Rachel B. Fissell, Kerri L. Cavanaugh, and Ebele M. Umeukeje 10. Diabetes in African Americans, by Marianna K. Wilson, Aundrea E. Loftley, Kelly J. Hunt, Carolyn Jenkins, and Kathie L. Hermayer 11. Stroke in African Americans from the Southern United States, by Carolyn Jenkins, Daniel Lackland, and Bruce Oubiagele 12. Disparities in Interpersonal Violence among African Americans, by Camille Burnett 13. Mental Health Disparities among African Americans, by Danielle L. McDuffe and Martha R. Crowther 14. Prostate Cancer among African American Men, by Folakemi T. Odedina, Clayton Yates, and Ernest Kaninjing 15. Colorectal Cancer among African Americans in the Southern United States, by Siddhartha Roy, Stacy N. Davis, John S. Luque, and Clement K. Gwede 16. Lung Cancer among African Americans, by Steven S. Coughlin 17. Sexual and Reproductive Health among African Americans in the Southern United States, by Lucy A. Ingram, Faith E. Fletcher, Tiffany Byrd, and Antonika Kadiri 18. Infant Mortality among African Americans in the Southern United States, by Paul C. Mann 19. Maternal Mortality among African American Women, by Marlo Vernon, Colleen Walters, Samantha Sojourner, and Candace Best PART IV: FUTURE DIRECTIONS 20. Ameliorating Health Inequities among African Americans in the Southern United States, by Steven S. Coughlin, Lovoria B. Williams, and Tabia Henry Akintobi Index
A collection of important essays on the health and well-being of African Americans in the southern United States.
