ISSUES THEN AND NOW

Health

A detailed report can be found here
  • Disparities in healthcare are growing in the Chicago region and this is largely due to the lack of access to medical care, screenings, and education, all of which are more difficult for people of color to access. Economic and social factors have combined to leave minority communities prone to greater risk of illness, ailment, and disease and without the care to manage these problems.
  • African Americans are the least likely to have their own doctor and seek medical care from a doctors office and more likely to use health centers and hospital emergency rooms.*
  • The rate of elderly uninsured for African Americans and Latinos are above the national average of 20%.*
  • African American neighborhoods have disproportionately less access to healthcare including hospitals, clinics, health professionals, and reputable pharmacies and are more likely to lack health insurance than the general population.*
  • Throughout the region “persons of color are less likely to be employed in places where the employer provides health insurance”.*

    General Health
  • Hypertension and asthma, two general indicators of health, are three times more prevalent in the lowest opportunity municipalities than in the highest.^
  • Chicago has the highest asthma death rate for African Americans in the country. In Chicago, African Americans are nearly five times more likely to die from asthma as Caucasians.*
  • African American Males account for more incidences of cancer than all other ethnic and racial groups. As well, as of 1997, the mortality rate for African American women with breast cancer was almost double that of Caucasians.*
  • African Americans account for only 15.1% of the population of Chicago but account for 50% of AIDS positive individuals.*
  • It is believed that mental health problems are distributed evenly across racial and ethnic groups (Surgeon General, DSMV IV r) however minority groups have less access to mental health screening and services. The treatment they do receive is often of poorer quality than that received by Caucasians.*
  • In 1997 26.9% of African American births and 16.9% of Latino births compared to 5.4% of Caucasian births were to teenage mothers.*

    The Obesity Epidemic
  • The rate of obesity and morbid obesity is rising across virtually all racial and ethnic groups, but it is rising most rapidly in African American and low income neighborhoods.+
  • The obesity problem is largely the result of the lack of access to resources needed to live a healthy lifestyle. Due to the lack of full service grocery stores, there is an over reliance on corner stores which are less likely to have fresh fruit and vegetables and instead offers processed, salty, and fatty foods.+
  • The lack of sit-down restaurants has created a gap now filled by unhealthy fast food restaurants.+
  • There is also a lack of resources that promote active lifestyles including gyms, playgrounds, parks, organized youth sports, and bike friendly roads and paths. African Americans are in turn more likely to suffer from problems connected to obesity, unhealthy diet, and sedentary lifestyles such as heart disease and obesity.+^
  • Health and Welfare of Children
  • Between 1994 and 1996, 9 out of every 10 children who died accidentally were minority children.*
  • African American children are more likely to remain on welfare for longer, 200% longer than Caucasian children and 50% longer than Latino children.*
  • The 15 Chicago community areas with the most unlicensed caregivers are all communities of color.*
  • In 1998, African American children made up 95% of the foster child population in Chicago.

 

A more detailed report can be found here
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In collaboration with the Center for Urban Research and Learning, Loyola University Chicago