Chronic Disease Facts

• African American women are more likely to die of breast cancer than are women of any other racial or ethnic group.
• The incidence of cervical cancer, a 100% preventable cancer, is more than five times greater among Vietnamese women in the United States than among white women.

• More than half of persons who die each year of heart disease are women.
• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for all racial and ethnic groups in the United States.
• In 1998, rates of death from cardiovascular disease were about 30% higher among African American adults than: among white adults.

• Diabetes affects more women than men.
• The prevalence of diabetes is 70% higher among African Americans and nearly 100% higher among Hispanics than among whites.
• The prevalence of diabetes among American Indians and Alaska Natives is more than twice that of the total population, and the Pimas of Arizona have the highest known prevalence of diabetes in the world.