Racial disparities in health

A new study that examines health care in West Virginia finds that disparities along races exist in health factors. Health Care For America Now says that amongst African-Americans more people with diabetes and more babies die than those with from other races. The study also has data that shows that rates of poverty are higher with ethnic minorities.

Instead of grabbing a snippet that has people talking about the possible causes, we decided to grab more stats for this post. From the Charleston Daily Mail reporter Michelle Saxton dives deeper into the report.

# West Virginia's infant mortality rate for black babies from 2003 to 2005 was 12 out of 1,000 live births, which is 60 percent higher than the 7.5 figure for white babies, the report shows.

# The life expectancy for a black person is six to 10 years shorter than that of a white person.

# The diabetes mortality rate for blacks is 85.3 deaths per 100,000 people compared to 33.3 for whites.

# The rate of annual AIDS cases for blacks is 41.8 per 100,000 compared to 3.7 for whites.

# About 32 percent of blacks live in poverty compared to 19 percent of whites.

# About 32 percent of blacks are enrolled in Medicaid compared to 17 percent of whites.