These are among some of the disparities we want to improve:

• Excess/potentially preventable deaths from cancer, lower respiratory disease and other illnesses in rural areas are often nearly double that of urban areas.
  • Life expectancy is three years shorter, and heart disease, cancer and stroke death rates are significantly higher in rural areas (23% of the U.S. population) vs. metropolitan areas.
  • 22% of those in rural areas live within 30 minutes of a lung cancer screening center vs. 83% in urban areas.
• Black women are 42% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women.
• Black men are 52% more likely to die from colorectal cancer (CRC) than white men. The 19% CRC disparity may be due to fewer screenings.
• Black Americans with diabetes are three times more likely to have a limb amputated than others.
• U.S. Latinos are more likely to die from CRC than those in many Central and South American nations. The CRC death rate for U.S. Latinos has dropped more slowly than for whites.
• Asian Americans are twice as likely to die from stomach cancers, eight times more likely to die from hepatitis and have a tuberculosis rate more than 30 times higher than white Americans.
• 39% of U.S. women without health insurance had a mammogram in the past two years vs. 75% of those with health insurance.