Professor Presents on Health of Black Women.
Yvette Cozier, assistant dean for diversity and inclusion and assistant professor of epidemiology, presented on the health of African American women at the New Bedford Whaling Museum on February 20.
In honor of Black History Month, Cozier presented some of the recent findings from the Boston University Slone Epidemiology Center’s Black Women’s Health Study (BWHS).
“Unless you’re a white male, little or nothing is known about your health risks or needs,” Cozier says. “The BWHS was begun to fill that informational void.”
Begun in 1995 and including more than 59,000 participants, the National Institutes of Health-supported BWHS is the largest follow-up study of African American women yet undertaken.
The study has found higher rates of diseases like hypertension, diabetes, lupus, and breast cancer. In her presentation, Cozier reported the recent findings that breastfeeding for any amount of time decreased risk of certain subtypes of breast cancer among study participants, and that higher levels of physical activity decreased breast cancer risk overall. Meanwhile, obesity increased the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and sarcoidosis.
Cozier’s presentation also explained how socioeconomic factors affect health, and explained the study’s attention to how experiencing discrimination can have its own potential health impact.