LYCOS RETRIEVER 
African Americans: Ages
built 185 days ago
Among African Americans, as with other U.S. populations, the prevalence of smoking declines as education level increases. In 2004, smoking rates were over three times higher among African Americans males over age 25 years old who had less than a high school education (36.7%) compared to those with a college education (11.3%). Smoking rates are ... higher in African American females over age 25 years old who have less than a high school education (29.2%) compared to those with a college education (6.9%).7
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The role of church-based programs in enhancing social integration for older African Americans and building a community-based infrastructure of supportive and health-related services cannot be overlooked. In many communities, the church may be the site of: a senior nutrition center or medical day care program; blood pressure and other medical screenings; provide immunizations; outreach programs; home care services such as shopping, friendly visiting, meals; or a senior citizen subsidized housing facility. By providing direct services, churches therefore act as a supplement to informal family caregiving and are positioned to refer to other community-based service agencies (Fried & Mehrotra, 1998).
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Perhaps even more than in the industrial era, the post- industrial age challenged African Americans to develop new strategies for coping with social change and the persistence of inequality. Some of their emerging responses built upon earlier struggles. Institution-building, marches, participation in electoral politics, and migration in search of better opportunities all continued to express black activism and resistance to social injustice. Yet, much had changed in the nation and in African American life, and such time-tested strategies took on different meanings in the 1980s and 1990s. Rising numbers of southern- born blacks returned to the South during the 1970s. After declining for more than a century, the proportion of blacks living in the South increased by 1980.
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While biology and higher rates of poverty can put African Americans at a health disadvantage, stress may be another tipping point. Of course, anyone of any race can suffer from stress, but African Americans seem to carry an especially heavy load. In 2006, Geronimus and colleagues took a new approach to measuring the stress burden of more than 6,500 people of different races and ages. Using data collected in a national health survey, Geronimus identified 10 physical signs of stress, including blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and BMI. The approach wasn't a perfect measure of stress -- all 10 factors are ... reflections of lifestyle -- but it did provide a stark view of a population in peril.
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Most African nations are essentially agricultural societies. For centuries, a majority of men have worked as farmers and cattle raisers, although some have made their living as fishers. Planting, sowing, and harvesting crops were women's duties in traditional West African society. The task of cooking ... seems to have fallen to women in ancient Africa. They prepared meals like fufu—a traditional dish made of pounded yams and served with soups, stew, roasted meat and a variety of sauces— over huge open pits.
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In countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, African immigrants were a minority having to deal with a vital and dynamic form of European society and culture. The African communities survived, and in some instances proliferated, but they did so against the stiff and relentless competition of the majority, or “high,” culture. Aspects of the African ethnic subculture were eventually adopted by the mainstream. Nonetheless, in such societies, the African character of the black culture is less pronounced than in societies where Africans formed the majority of the inhabitants.
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