The shops sell soul food, pizza, bagels, and school supplies. In its 10 square miles live 35,000 people over the age of 60. The question is critical because some ethnic minority groups face higher health risks than the general population, especially among older people. African Americans, for example, have higher rates of high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, many cancers, diabetes, glaucoma - all problems that increase with age. Black life expectancy remains about 5 years below that of whites.
Many gaps exist in our knowledge of minority aging, including basic data on the rates of disease.
In the New York neighborhood, the North Manhattan Aging Project is comparing rates and risk factors for dementia among African Americans, whites, and Hispanics. In Honolulu, dementia among Japanese Americans is the focus. An in five southwestern states, researchers are gathering basic epidemiologic data on health and disease among thousands of older Mexican Americans as part of NIA's Hispanic Health Initiative. The Oldest Old Up until the mid-1980s, one age group in America existed in a sort of demographic limbo. Available surveys rarely provided detailed information on them.