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The health of women in New York City has improved greatly over the past decade, but too many women still experience poor health. Key issues include a lack of preventive care and screenings, higher rates of obesity and higher death rates from AIDS. Grant funding was awarded to the Fund for Public Health in New York (FPHNY) to allow the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to examine disparities in women's health.
The Women at Risk report, released in March 2005, found that the life expectancy of women in the poorest neighborhoods is five years shorter than those who live in the highest income neighborhoods. Women with a regular primary health care provider are more likely than those without one to receive preventive cancer screenings. One-quarter of women age 40 and older do not receive mammograms and one-fifth of all women do not receive Pap tests. More than 1 in 3 women age 65 and older do not get flu shots and fewer than half of women age 65 and over have ever received a pneumonia shot. Women also rate their health as fair or poor more often than men.
Significant disparities also exist based on race. Latina women and women with low incomes are less likely than others to have health care coverage. AIDS mortality is 7 times higher for Black women than for White women. Rates of low birth weight and infant death are higher in the black community than in other races/ethnicities. Black women are more than twice as likely as White women to die of pregnancy-related complications.
Copies of the report were distributed to community based organizations, policy-makers, advocacy groups, academics, and hospitals to provide policy-makers and program-planners with data that they can use in decision-making.
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In June of 2007, Lynn Silver, M.D., MPH, Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Chronic Disease Control, NYC Department of Health, testified before the NYC Council Committee on Health and Committee on Women's Issues to raise awareness of a recent decrease in mammography rates, nationally and in NYC.
The New York Community Trust, through a grant to the Fund for Public Health in New York, supported a study by the Health Department to examine the factors behind the decrease in breast cancer screening. Preliminary findings indicate that the barriers to mammograms are not likely to have changed or become more severe. The decrease in mammography rates is more likely to be due to changing demographics.
The Health Department has launched a new Women's Health Initiative which focuses on increasing Pap and Mammography screening, and addressing risk factors for cancer such as obesity.
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