While more data are needed, there are enough data showing a strong relationship between poverty and poor health. The poor, regardless of race or ethnicity, share a disproportionate burden of poor health. The following discussion highlights how health disparities occur among different demographic groups in North Carolina. This discussion is adapted from Healthy People 2010. Race and Ethnicity Current knowledge about biologic and genetic characteristics of different populations does not explain the health disparities experienced by several minority groups compared with the White population.
Data depicting race and ethnicity show dramatic health disparities .
In North Carolina, the mortality rate for coronary heart disease for Minorities in 1998 was 19.2 percent higher than for Whites. This disparity has increased steadily over the past 20 years, beginning in 1979 when the Minority rate was slightly less than the White rate. The racial disparity in mortality from coronary heart disease is greater among women than among men. Minority women presently have a 28.4 percent higher mortality rate than White women, up from a 9.8 percent difference in 1979. The present disparity between Minority and White men is 13.2 percent, a reversal of the disparity seen in 1979 when the heart disease mortality for Minority men was slightly less than for White men.