Black Male Health in the United States: Implications of Demographic Heterogeneity

Juanita J. Chinn, Princeton University
Andrea K. Henderson, University of Texas at Austin

The health of Black men is a growing but understudied public health concern. Still we know Black men suffer some of the worst health outcomes, including higher rates of heart disease, cancer, and mortality. However, much of the work on the intersectionality of race, gender and health has largely ignored the issue of ethnic heterogeneity within the Black racial category. The purpose of this paper is twofold: First, we focus a review of the current literature on the social and cultural determinants of Black male health in the United States. Second, as a contribution to research we examine nativity differences on multiple health outcomes across key demographic characteristics among a nationally representative sample of Black men residing in the United States.