Other research reveals that African Americans and American Indians have higher age-specific death rates than whites from birth through retirement (Williams et al 2010). Hispanics (or Latinos) have elevated rates of some leading causes of death such as diabetes, hypertension, liver cirrhosis and homicide. Moreover, the elevated rates of disease and death for minorities compared to whites reflect the earlier onset of illness, greater severity of disease and poorer survival (Williams et al. 2010). Even when African Americans have a lower rate of illness than whites, they have a prognosis that is considerably worse than those of their white counterparts. For example, a recent national study found that although blacks have lower current and lifetime rates of major depression than whites, the cases of depression among blacks were more likely to be persistent, severe, disabling, and untreated (Williams, Gonzalez et al. 2007).
