Poor diet, alcohol and drug abuse, poverty, social isolation, cultural differences and lack of education have all contributed to the hard life in Indian country. Native American teen-agers and young adults had the highest suicide rates of all ethnic groups, according to 1995 statistics. Adult Indians were more likely than any other ethnic group to die in car accidents, many of them alcohol-related. When it comes to the health of Americans from Asia and the Pacific islands, those words carry the sting of irony. Overall, Asian Americans have the longest life expectancy, the lowest infant mortality and the lowest death rates from heart disease and cancer compared with other Americans.
Stroke is the only major illness for which Asian death rates are higher than for whites.
For more information on minority health Resources and self-help programs are available via clearinghouses, Web sites, textbooks and publications Many groups are working to solve the social and scientific puzzle of inferior minority health care. The lump in her right breast was not cancer, he told her. The biopsy she was requesting made no sense. At 34, she was too young for cancer. She had no family history of it, and the mammogram was negative.