What Do Hispanic Women Suffer From?

· The top five leading cause of death for Hispanics of all ages are heart disease, diabetes, cerebrovascular disease, accidents and adverse effects, and breast cancer.(1)

· Arthritis is the second most common chronic disease and the second leading cause of activity limitation in Hispanics.(2)

	Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Hispanic women in the U.S.(3)

	Breast cancer diagnoses are increasing among Hispanic women. Hispanic women have a lower survival rate than non-Hispanic white women. This is predominantly due to later diagnosis.(4)

	Hispanic women suffer from the second highest rates of cervical cancer, with a mortality rate of 3.3 per 100,000 compared to 2.6 per 100,00 for Caucasian women.(5)

	For reasons still unknown to researchers, South American women who immigrate to the United States are more prone to develop premenopausal breast cancer.(6)

	Hispanic women are the only racial/ethnic group for which the mortality rate for breast cancer is higher than lung cancer.(1)

	10.2% of all Hispanic/Latino Americans have diabetes.(7)

	The prevalence of diabetes is at least 2 to 4 times higher among black, Hispanic, American Indian and Asian/Pacific Islander women than among white women.(8)

	More than one-quarter of Hispanic women aged 65-74 have Type II diabetes.(8)

	Experts estimate that about half of women with gestational diabetes develop type 2 diabetes within 20 years of the pregnancy. For Mexican American women, this may be as great as 12 percent per year.(9)

	The AIDS case rate for Hispanic women is more than six times that for non-Hispanic white women.(10)

	As of December 2000, non-Hispanic black and Hispanic women combined, represented over three quarters (77.5%) of all reported AIDS cases in women in the United States.(10)

Liver Disease

· Among women, Hispanic women have the highest rates of death from Cirrhosis of the liver. (11)

	Mexican American women have a high prevalence of obesity. Obesity is more prevalent in Mexican American women than in Mexican American men.(4)

	Mexican American women are generally less physically active than white women.(4)

Ten percent of Hispanic women aged 50 and older are estimated to have osteoporosis, and 49 percent of Hispanic women aged 50 and older are estimated to have low bone mass.(12)

Pregnancy-related deaths occur more frequently in Hispanic women than in non-Hispanic white women. The pregnancy-related mortality ratio was 10.3 deaths per 100,000 live births for Hispanic women compared with 6.0 deaths for non-Hispanic white women.(13)

1. Making the Grade on Women's Health: A National and State-by-State Report Card: National Women's Law Center; August 2000.
2. Prevalence and impact of arthritis by race and ethnicity--United States, 1989-1991. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1996;45(18):373-378.
3. Eberhardt MS, Ingram DD, Makuc DM. Urban and Rural Health Chartbook. Health, Unites States, 2001. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics; 2001 2001.
4. Healthy People 2010, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Government Printing Office; November 2000.
5. Ross H. Lifting the Unequal Burden of Cancer on Minorities and the Underserved: NCI Develops Strategic Plan to Reduce Cancer Related Health Disparities. Washington, DC: Office of Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; August 2000.
6. Brooks J. Lifting the Unequal Burden of Cancer on Minorities and the Underserved: NCI Develops Strategic Plan to Reduce Cancer Related Health Disparities. Closing the Gap. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Minority Health; 2000.
7. National diabetes statistics fact sheet: general information and national estimates on diabetes in the United States, 2000. National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Available at: http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/diabetes/pubs/dmstats/dmstats.htm#10. Accessed August 22, 2002.
8. Beckles GLA, Thompson-Reid PE. Diabetes and women's health across the life stages: a public health perspective. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Diabetes Translation; 2001.
9. Peters RK, Kjos SL, Xiang A, Buchanan TA. Long-term diabetogenic effect of single pregnancy in women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus. Lancet. 1996;347(8996):227-230.
10. HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Pervention; 2000. 12(No.2).
11. Stinson FS, Grant BF, Dufour MC. The critical dimension of ethnicity in liver cirrhosis mortality statistics. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2001;25(8):1181-1187.
12. Fast Facts on Osteoporosis. National Institutes of Health, Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases National Resource Center. January, 2002. Available at: http://www.osteo.org/newfile.asp?doc=fast&doctitle=Fast+Facts+on+Osteoporosis&doctype=HTML+Fact+Sheet. Accessed August 22, 2002.
13. Hopkins FW, MacKay AP, Koonin LM, Berg CJ, Irwin M, Atrash HK. Pregnancy-related mortality in Hispanic women in the United States. Obstet Gynecol. 1999;94(5 Pt 1):747-752.