IUSM promoting minority women health-care campaignBy Amber Klopfer | |
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A new community-based preventive health-care campaign was launched during the Minority Health Fair at Indiana Black Expo this summer in Indianapolis. Local efforts led by the IU School of Medicine (IUSM) focus on helping women take simple, time-sensitive
steps to improve their health.
Previous health campaigns have emphasized goals with complex components, such as weight loss or smoking cessation. This campaign, dubbed “Pick Your Path to Health,” is designed to be compatible with today’s multi-tasking, multi-cultural society by suggest ing specific, lifestyle-friendly action steps—such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator—to stay on a path to wellness. The campaign, initiated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health, encourages health awareness among all women but focuses on Americans of African, Asian and Hispanic descents. Local efforts led by IUSM include distributing healthy living daily planners to women of color at health fairs and clinics and facilitating presentations by IU health-care providers to women’s church groups. The goal is to bring together key community-bas ed activities with national efforts that are ultimately aimed at eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health status. Research shows that despite gains made in life expectancy in the United States during the past century, gaps in health outcomes pe rsist among ethnic groups. For example, African-American women are 25 percent more likely to die from a heart attack and 86 percent more likely to die from a stroke than are Caucasian women. “While outreach efforts by the medical community have improved, disparities in medical care and educational opportunities still exist for women belonging to under-represented groups in our community,” said Dr. Rose Fife, director of the IU National Cente r of Excellence in Women’s Health. “This campaign is an effort to reach these women and to provide them with basic health information and manageable programs to help them achieve healthier lifestyles.” http://www.medicine.indiana.edu/pypth/index.html http://www.4woman.gov |
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Publication date: 15 September 2000
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