BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in women and is associated with higher rates of stroke and death. Rates of AF are lower in African American subjects compared with European Americans, suggesting European ancestry could contribute to AF risk. METHODS The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study (OS) followed up 93,676 women since the mid 1990s for va...

BACKGROUND Hypertension among African American women is of epidemic proportions. Nonadherence to treatment contributes to uncontrolled blood pressure in this population. Factors associated with adherence to treatment in African American women are unknown. The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with adherence to hypertension treatment in African American women. METHODS Fi...

INTRODUCTION Colorectal cancer screening rates are lower among African-American members of Kaiser Permanente Colorado (KPCO) than among members of other races and ethnicities. This study evaluated use of a linguistically congruent voice in interactive voice response outreach calls about colorectal cancer screening as a strategy to increase call completion and response. METHODS After an initia...

Recent genetic admixture coupled with striking differences in incidence of estrogen receptor (ER) breast cancer subtypes, as well as severity, between women of African and European ancestry, provides an excellent rationale for performing admixture mapping in African American women with breast cancer risk. We performed the largest breast cancer admixture mapping study with in African American wo...

Hair care in African American women is wrought with historical and cultural issues. Dermatologists need to improve their understanding of hair and scalp disorders in their African American patient population by being informed about the styling methods commonly used by and for these patients. The styling habits described in this article are intended to encompass the hairstyles adapted by a wide ...

Specific stereotype portrayals of African American women were hypothesized to produce stereotypeconsistent judgments made of a different African American woman. Participants (N = 76) observed a mammy, jezebel or welfare queen video-segment. Then they observed an African American woman in a mock job interview and rated the interviewee. Participants who observed a specific stereotype associated t...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a common demyelinating disease of the central nervous system mediated by autoimmune and neurodegenerative pathogenic mechanisms. Multiple genes account for its moderate heritability, but the only genetic region shown to have a large replicable effect on MS susceptibility is the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) across the MHC h...

BACKGROUND Ethnoracial disparities in both tobacco-related mortality and treatment outcome for smoking cessation have been reported among adults, but there is a dearth of information on ethnoracial differences among adolescent smokers. OBJECTIVE To compare smoking-related characteristics in African American and non-African American teenaged applicants for a smoking cessation trial. PARTICIP...

BACKGROUND High levels of obesity among African American women have been hypothesized to be partially resultant from a lower resting metabolic rate compared with white women. The aim of the current study was to determine if differences in cardiorespiratory fitness and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity are associated with differences in resting metabolic rate among free-living young adult A...

OBJECTIVE To assess caregivers’ perceptions of the extent to which the food marketing environment influences food consumption among African-American children (aged 3–11 years) in order to generate potential strategies to make the marketing environment more favourable to healthier eating. DESIGN Individual semi-structured interviews with caregivers were conducted by trained community leaders t...