ARLINGTON - To narrow the health disparities between minorities and White populations battling diabetes, HIV, prostate cancer and other diseases, the country must develop models of universal health care systems, train doctors to be culturally competent and extend access to high-quality health care to low-income and minority communities, said Dr. Chidi Achebe, president and CEO of Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center, during a workshop at the 59th annual American Medical Student Association national convention.
Medical students from across the country and abroad huddled into a small conference room to discuss what organizers called the most prevalent civil rights issue of the decade – the stark health disparities that exist between minority and White populations.
Deluging his audience with familiar statistics, Achebe, son of famous Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, reminded students that the life expectancy for racial minorities was shorter than that of their White counterparts, although the gap between Whites and Blacks in the United States has narrowed over the last decade, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The life expectancy of Black men, for instance, is 60 years – the shortest among any group – while White men usually live about six years longer than Black men.
“A Black male in Cuba can expect to live longer than a Black male living here,” Achebe said.
