Black Women's Study, Slone Epidemiology Center, Boston University
The Importance of Place in Health
In the 20th century, almost all health research was conducted in White populations. Many believed it was not possible to enroll and retain participants from other populations. The Black Women’s Health Study, with 59,000 Black women joining in 1995 and completing questionnaires every two years since then, showed it could be done. Research results from the BWHS demonstrate the importance of place: characteristics of one’s residential neighborhood impact development of hypertension, diabetes, and obesity over and above individual behaviors. Psychosocial stress, including chronic exposure to racism, also plays a role. Breast cancer research in the BWHS has identified lower rates of breastfeeding in Black mothers as a likely contributor to the higher incidence of estrogen receptor negative breast cancer in Black women, an aggressive subtype that leads to higher death rates from breast cancer. To date, existing models for calculating breast cancer risk (and thus referring women for screening or chemoprevention) have performed poorly in Black women. BWHS data are now been used to develop a unique model tailored to this population.
Social Media Lab at the APHA 2014 Meeting
APHA 2014