Portrait Project 2010: Focus on Health

In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re not only celebrating women’s past accomplishments — we’re looking at ways in which we can make the future better for women and girls right here in our own community.  We’re exploring what we can all do to help women and girls achieve more, go further and have a brighter future.

Throughout the month and beyond, we’ll be highlighting findings from our new report 2010 Portrait of Women & Girls in the Washington Metropolitan Area in a wide variety of areas.  Portrait Project 2010 gives a clear and current look at the lives of women and girls across the region and it is divided by subject matter.  Today we’re focusing on health.

Our concentration on health coincides with National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, which is on Thursday.  It’s critical that individuals, organizations and the community as a whole focus on HIV/AIDS solutions in our community.  According to Portrait Project 2010, the AIDS case rate for women in D.C. is nearly 12 times the national rate for women (90 cases per 100,000).  The AIDS case rate for African American women in the District is 176 cases per 100,000 women.  And 118 out of every 100,000 teens (both male and female) aged 13 to 19 are living with AIDS, nearly all of them African American.  According to Portrait Project 2010: “the District of Columbia Department of Health has called the HIV/AIDS rate among African American youth an ‘epidemic.’”

Portrait Project 2010 also reports that Chlamydia rates for women in D.C. are more than twice as high as the rates in Maryland and Virginia and almost three times as high as the national rate.  Similar differences exist for Gonorrhea.

The report also found that local heart disease rates are similar in our region to the national rate of 3.4 percent.  A large disparity does exist, however when it comes to race.  In the District, the percentage of African American women with heart disease (4.1 percent) is almost six times that of white women (0.7 percent).  Latinas are also considerably more likely to have heart disease (2.0 percent) than white women.

More than one in four women in our area is obese, reports Portrait Project 2010, and obesity is more prevalent among women of color in our region.  More than one in three African American women in our area is obese.  Latinas are also at significant risk for obesity.  And the percentage of children who are overweight in Virginia has been on the rise in recent years.

Our region has cancer mortality rates for women that are close to the national cancer mortality rate (158 per 100,000).  Maryland has the highest cancer death rate for women in the region, with 166 deaths per 100,000.  Virginia has the lowest with 160 deaths per 100,000.

Finally, the report shows that Washington, DC has had the highest teen pregnancy and birth rates in the nation.  In our region, Latinas are the most likely to have babies as teens.

In spite of the challenges, Portrait Project 2010 shows that our region has high rates of health insurance coverage for women: about nine out of 10 women in the region is covered (compared to eight in 10 nationwide).  The report also shows that nearly all girls aged 17 and younger in the region have insurance.

But the rates of health insurance also show a theme that is repeated throughout Portrait Project 2010: a gap in access to resources that doesn’t bridge the poverty line.  Income, race and ethnicity play a major role in whether or not women are insured.  “Women with incomes below the poverty line are much less likely to be insured (77 percent), in comparison with women who have incomes above 200 percent of the poverty line (93 percent).  Women of color are also at a disadvantage… Latinas have the lowest levels of health insurance in our region in Prince George’s County, fewer than seven in 10 are covered.”

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at some of The Women’s Foundation’s Grantee Partners that are helping women and girls lead healthier lives.

To read more from Portrait Project 2010, please click here.

Caduceus photo credit: CogDogBlog via Creative Commons.