Black or African American

Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure (BP), is a serious condition that can lead to heart disease, kidney failure, and early death. It is very common in the United States, particularly among Black adults.

Although high BP is treatable, treatment can be difficult to access, especially in rural areas with few doctors’ offices. In the rural Southeastern United States, where more than half of Black adults have been diagnosed with hypertension, distance and high transportation costs make it difficult for patients to attend regular doctor’s visits to manage their BP.

During the COVID-19 pandemic and at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, researchers assembled a recruitment dream team and joined with African American men who are prostate cancer survivors to “do what is needed for future generations.”

African American men have disproportionately higher prostate cancer rates, with an earlier onset, and twice the prostate cancer mortality than other racial groups. These outcomes are difficult for University of Southern California (USC) researchers to accept.

The likelihood that Black children will experience racial discrimination increases as they age and spend time in their communities, schools, and online. Racial discrimination is a significant public health concern. Approximately 90% of Black youth report discriminatory experiences each year that increases their vulnerability to depression and anxiety.

According to researchers, Black youth may ruminate about their discriminatory experiences, which is the internalization of negative feelings as a coping strategy, but it can lead to detrimental mental health outcomes.

Hundreds of postbac fellows recently filled the Natcher Conference Center for NIH’s 2024 Postbac Poster Day. Among them were 11 NIMHD early-career researchers already advancing understanding of minority health and health disparities research.

The largest coordinated research effort to study biological and non-biological factors associated with higher burden and aggressive prostate cancer in African American men has begun. The $26.5 million study is called RESPOND, or Research on Prostate Cancer in Men of African Ancestry: Defining the Roles of Genetics, Tumor Markers, and Social Stress.

NIMHD’s Conversations with Researchers Engaging With Communities

February is Black History Month. As we celebrate the significant contributions to America—from its history through present day and beyond—by people who represent Black and African American communities, we recognize researchers who are promoting health equity through their community-engaged research.

Racial inequities in high-intensity care negatively affect the quality of care received by Black patients with chronic and complex medical conditions, several studies have shown. An NIMHD study on the lived experiences of Black patients hospitalized with serious illnesses at the end of life revealed frequent instances of perceived racial discrimination and microaggressions from health care workers that increased medical mistrust and poor patient-clinician communication in medical decision-making.

For the first time, firearm-related deaths exceeded motor vehicle collisions as the leading cause of death for U.S. youth across all racial and ethnic groups in 2020, according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mortality data by researchers at NIMHD.

Tobacco quitlines offer evidence-based services that help individuals quit tobacco use. They are shown to be effective with great potential to serve populations experiencing health disparities, because they remove key access barriers (e.g., cost, lack of health insurance, transportation).