African Americans have the highest rates of sporadic colorectal cancer in the U.S. Black women are more likely to die from colorectal cancer than women in any other racial group and black men are even more likely to die from colorectal cancer than black women.
Why? It's hard to say exactly. I haven't read anything that pins it on genetics. Instead, researchers think it's a combination of lifestyle and societal factors. For example, some studies suggest that African-American culture encourages unhealthy behavior with regard to drinking, smoking, and eating. If that's true, it provides part of the explanation but doesn't suffice on its own. Societal factors are at work here, too.
Although federal law doesn't discriminate against African Americans with regard to healthcare access (as with gays and lesbians), other healthcare inequalities exist. Studies have shown that in the U.S., black patients systematically receive lower quality healthcare than white patients.
According to Dr. Louis Sullivan, a former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, "Minority physicians, dentists and nurses are more likely to serve minority and medically under-served populations, yet there is a severe shortage of minorities in the health professions. Without much more diversity in the health workforce, minorities will continue to suffer."
Although African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans comprise more than a quarter of the nation's population, they represent only six percent of the nation's doctors. The director of the American Public Health Association, Dr. Georges Benjamin, believes that "The dearth of minority health professionals directly contributes to the nation's crisis of lower quality healthcare and higher rates of illness and disability among a growing number of residents."
Colon cancer screening is an essential component of colorectal cancer prevention. Only high quality healthcare can ensure adequate screening recommendations and procedures.
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Sources:
Back, P. and Pham, H. "Primary Care Physicians Who Treat Blacks and Whites." New England Journal of Medicine 351 (5 Aug. 2004): 575-584. 5 Feb. 2007 [http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/351/6/575].
Epstein, Arnold. "Health Care in America -- Still Too Separate, Not Yet Equal." New England Journal of Medicine 351 (5 Aug. 2004): 603-605. 5 Feb. 2007 [http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/extract/351/6/603].
Soloway, Bruce. "U.S. Health Care: Separate and Unequal." Journal Watch. 20 Aug. 2004. 4 Feb. 2007 [http://general-medicine.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/2004/820/1].
