Glaucoma and Cervical Health Awareness Month

Kappa Xi Lambda Health and Wellness

Kappa Xi Lambda Brothers,

Happy New Year 2022! January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month, and Cervical Health Awareness Month. Below are some articles of interest addressing these topics. Please click on the links or cut and paste into your browser to read the entire articles.

African Americans with Glaucoma

patients, it leads to blindness. More than 10,000 Black Philadelphians are participating in a Penn study to understand glaucoma Diane McCoy Lackey knew something was wrong with her right eye.

“Something just happened, and it seemed that I couldn’t see,” the North Philadelphia resident said.

Her ophthalmologist offered a sobering diagnosis: glaucoma, a class of eye conditions that damage the nerve that connects the eye to the brain. In 5% of

Black people such as Lackey are five times more likely to develop glaucoma than white people, and the disease tends to strike Black patients a decade earlier and progress faster. Yet, most glaucoma research — as with many other medical studies — has focused on white patients.

For more information on Glaucoma and African Americans and other resources – please click the links below - https:// www.inquirer.com/health/glaucoma-genetics-black-penn-philadelphia-scheie-20210809.html

Additional Resources -

https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/outreach-campaigns-and-resources/glaucoma-resources/ glaucoma-awareness-month

https://www.glaucoma.org/news/glaucoma-awareness-month.php

Cervical Health Awareness Month

The National Cervical Cancer Coalition recognizes Cervical Health Awareness Month in January — a time to raise awareness about cervical cancer, HPV disease, and the importance of getting screened. Use these Cervical Cancer Awareness resources from the CDC to help educate people online and in your community. You can also share our easyto-understand MyHealthfinder resources to encourage people to get screened for cervical cancer and learn about the HPV vaccine. And don’t forget to explore the Healthy People Cancer topic to learn about progress made to reduce new cases of cancer.

Kappa Xi Lambda Health and Wellness

For more information, visit - https://www.nccc-online.org/cervical-health-awareness-month/ Disparities in Cervical Cancer Follow-Up and Screening in African American Women

Why are black women more likely to die of cervical cancer? Later stage at diagnosis. African American women are more likely to present with advanced cervical cancer than non-Hispanic white women. Less-aggressive treatment. African American women are more likely to receive no treatment after a cancer diagnosis. Differences in treatment may be attributed to comorbid conditions, stage at cancer diagnosis and patient refusal. Less access to care. A study from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program of the National Cancer Institute looked at 7,267 women (4,431 non-Hispanic white women, 1,830 Hispanic white women and 1,006 non-Hispanic African American women) who were diagnosed with primary invasive cervical cancer from 1992 to 1996 and followed through 2000. African American women had a 19 percent higher mortality rate compared with non-Hispanic white women during follow-up despite adjusting for age, stage, histology and time of first treatment. However, a later study from the same program found no such difference after 1995, when the data were adjusted for marital status, disease stage, age, treatment, grade and histology.

For more information on African Americans with Cervical Health – please click the link below.

https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/disparities-in-cervical-cancer-follow-up-and-screening-in-africanamerican-women/

For Brothers looking to participate in the Kappa Xi Lambda’s Health and Wellness (KXLHW) activities, please contact Bro. Derrick Butts dabutts@mac.com

Thank you for your participation and support of the KXHW via Community Service!

Bro. Derrick Butts

Calling All Brothers! Are you a Brother who has been creating social change within the community? Feel free to reach out and the communications committee will contact you to see if we can share it in our newsletter! You can contact us at:

associateeditor@wallstreetalphas.com