Why Black women outlive Black men

Jet, March 21, 2005

Even though people are living longer than ever, according to a recent study, women tend to live longer than men.

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that life expectancy has reached an all-time high.

The report, "Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2003," prepared by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), shows life expectancy at 77.6 years in 2003, up from 77.3 in 2002.

When it comes to Blacks--the study found that Black women tend to live until 76.1 years of age while Black men tend to live to 69.2 years of age.

Women-across the board-outlive men, with White women averaging 80.5 years of life expectancy and White men averaging life expectancy of 75.4 years.

JET contacted experts to find out exactly why Black women outlive Black men.

Dr. Terry Mason, a Chicago-based urologist and medical director of the Center for New Life, says the No. 1 reason Black women outlive Black men is that men tend not to go to the doctor as often as they should.

Mason notes Black men are taught by society that it is "macho not to think about pain. We are supposed to keep dealing with it. We may be in pain and try not to think about it. And as we do that, we only create a problem for ourselves by not going to the doctor. If the health problem is not dealt with, it will go too far and will be at a much more advanced stage. If Brothers would go to the doctor earlier, we may be able to catch it and treat it better and Black men, therefore, would live longer."

Dr. Mason adds that many men who finally go to the doctor don't ask enough questions about their health. "We don't ask questions. We don't seek a second opinion. We need to understand what the doctor is telling us. But we walk out of the doctor's office, not knowing what he said and too embarrassed to ask him to explain what he said."

One out of every six men is expected to get prostate cancer, with Black men twice as likely to get it. "We don't take part in early screenings as do our White counterparts," Mason explains.

Dr. Deborah Williams, chief of cardiology at Howard University Hospital, points out that society encourages women to seek medical attention at an early age.

"Typically women go to the doctor more often. In their younger years, their childbearing years, they come for prenatal and postnatal care." Women, she notes, continue to go to the doctor for routine checkups, screenings for breast cancer (mammogram), cervical cancer (pap smear) and other diseases.

"We have Women's Heart Day, breast cancer screenings--there hasn't been very much encouragement for Black men to get themselves screened for everything: cancer, prostate cancer and heart disease. Heart disease has the higher mortality rate among Black men than any other group."

She notes that Black men don't understand the concept of "well care" and preventive care. "We don't think about going to the doctor until we are sick and something has happened. Too many Black men don't understand that early detection of a health problem can prolong their lives."

She adds that some, not all, Black men in lower socioeconomic groups only see a doctor in a hospital emergency room.

Dr. Williams also believes that one reason Black women outlive Black men stems from socioeconomic behavioral factors. "Not all Black men, of course, but certainly in some socioeconomic groups, Black men have a higher homicide rate than Black women, if you look at the records of people who are being killed. They also have higher car accident rates. Women tend to do less fast driving and are a little more cautious than men. Also, the drug incidents are higher among Black males than females."

Dr. Winston Price, president of the National Medical Association, points out that from a historic perspective, Black women have always outlived Black men--a factor that stems from slavery.

"Not to minimize the impact of slavery on either gender, but during slavery, the men were given the harder tasks and the more severe punishment. They were subjected to the worse conditions in respect to confinement, so the stress leading to hypertension, nutrition, cardiovascular and diabetes would be more prevalent."

As the years passed, many Black men became the strong "stoic individual who worked and provided for the family, an aspect that was more important than going for health care."

Rev. Willie T. Barrow, chair of the board emeritus, Rainbow/ PUSH, believes women live longer than men because they know how to communicate. "Women talk. They communicate: 'Girl, I got a headache. Girl, I got this pain that won't go away. I better go to the doctor.' Men keep things on the inside; you don't know what's hurting them. Men also ignore symptoms. They may have a little burning in the chest, but they won't go see a doctor. They may get a little dizzy, sit down, but they don't know they are having high blood pressure symptoms." Barrow, who is also a minister of justice at the Vernon Park Church of God in Chicago, says that men are under a lot more stress than women. "It takes more just for a Black man to live. They are also limited because they are the first fired, last hired; they deal with a lot more racial profiling than women. That puts them under stress."