A widening gulf in the health status of blacks and whites in Chicago comes even as disparities between the two races nationally have remained relatively constant, a new study has found. The disparity is particularly jarring in five areas: death from all causes, heart disease mortality, breast cancer mortality, rates of tuberculosis, and the percentage of women who received no prenatal care during the first trimester of pregnancy. Nationally, the racial gap got worse from 1990 to 2005 for six of the 15 health indicators researchers studied. However, in Chicago, disparities worsened for 11 of the 15 indicators, according to research by the Sinai Urban Health Institute, published online Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health.
