I recently had the honor and pleasure of attending Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.’s meeting entitled “The Empowerment of Girls and Women: Addressing poverty, hunger, health disparities, education, and other current changes.” 

Held at the United Nation’s Plaza Hotel in NYC, this meeting was an extraordinary gathering of mothers, sisters, wives, grandmothers, aunts, nieces, and friends all in red, all looking to make a difference.  After all, as stated in the opening remarks made by Dr. Marcella Maxwell, who was representing the National Social Action Commission of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., “There is much work to be done. But who better to do the work than Delta?  And what better time than now?”

One of the major topics of the day was how women and girls living under poor socioeconomic conditions do not receive necessary health care.  Patricia Pearman, director of Disparity Programs and US Partnerships at GE Healthymagination, began the session with a few very disconcerting statistics about breast cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease:

• Every 13 minutes, a woman dies of breast cancer
• There is a 30% rate of triple negative breast cancer, which is a very aggressive form of breast cancer, in African American women
• The five-year breast cancer survival rate for African American women is 78%, up only four percentage points in 35 years
• 66% of Americans living with Alzheimer’s Disease are female
• 60% of those caring for Alzheimer’s patients are women

Pearman then posed a question:  What if you lived in a remote rural community with little access to healthcare and you find out that you or someone close to you develops one of these conditions?  Even with support, these diseases can significantly interrupt normal life.  Now imagine what it would be like if support was not available.  To discuss these issues in greater detail, Pearman turned to an expert panel consisting of Dr. Claudia Baquet, Dr. Maria Carrillo, and Carol Evans.

 As the Associate Dean of Policy and Planning at the University of Maryland, Dr. Claudia Baquet is well versed in the health issues surrounding breast cancers.  But instead on first drawing from her expertise, she began with a personal story about her own mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer when Dr. Baquet was just 1 year old.  “Almost everyone knows someone who has had breast cancer,” she stated.  And, perhaps that is further exemplified by the fact that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, accounting for approximately 39,000 deaths annually.

Adding to these statistics, Dr. Baquet highlighted the disproportional rate of breast cancer disease rate in African American women.  She also discussed that African American women experience increased rates of triple negative breast cancer, a type of breast cancer that is very aggressive and is more likely to recur if successful treatment is initially attained.  While there are efforts to better educate African American women about their higher risk status, there is still so much to learn. 

One of the major roadblocks when it comes to finding breast cancer treatments tailored for a woman’s ethnic background is the astoundingly low clinical trial enrollment rates for women of color.  This begs the question: if a woman’s ethnicity can affect her chances to develop breast cancer, are the results from clinical studies, which are conducted on a mostly homogenous population, relevant?  It seems foolish to assume that ethnicity (genetic background) would not, in some way, affect the efficacy of treatment.  Dr. Baquet is working to educate the minority community about breast cancer and encourages participation in clinical studies.    

While breast cancer can be devastating, we are fortunate to live in an age where breast cancer research is thriving.  Unfortunately, we cannot say the same for many other diseases that disproportionately affect women, including Alzheimer’s Disease research.  Scratching the surface of this neurodegenerative disease was Dr. Maria Carrillo, Senior Director of Medical and Scientific Relations for the Alzheimer’s Association.  She stressed that, while we do not know what causes Alzheimer’s, we do know that it is NOT a normal part of ageing. 

Affecting 5.4 million Americans and 36 million people globally, Alzheimer’s Disease is a progressive brain disorder hallmarked by the loss of memory, thinking, and other brain functions, presumably as a result of damaged and dying brain cells.  But, here’s the kicker – the diagnosis is not the start of the disease!  People who have Alzheimer’s start experiencing changes in their brain chemistry up to 20 years prior to the official diagnosis.

As with certain breast cancers, African American and Latino populations are disproportionately affected by this disease.  Adding more complications to the body of knowledge (or lack thereof) surrounding Alzheimer’s research that it is incredibly underfunded compared to research for other diseases like cancer.

But it’s not just the people with Alzheimer’s who are affected by the disease.  As pointed out by Carol Evans, CEO of Working Mother Magazine, women constitute a majority of the people caring for patients with Alzheimer’s disease.  And this care is very often happening in the home.  Building on this, Carol went on to discuss how the matriarchs are often the family health managers, taking care of their significant others, children, pets, and quite often, ageing parents.  And, a woman’s employment can be the difference between poverty and a healthy lifestyle. 

So how do we empower women who are in some way affected by breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, or some other major illness?  Carol pointed out that social media is a tremendous opportunity for women.  Given our strengths in relationship building, it can help speed up social, business, and educational connections.  Furthermore, we can use social media to leap frog ahead with regard to health information, health disparities, health myths, etc., not to mention the fact that social media can be used to help increase participation in clinical trials. 

The important points I took from this great meeting essentially embodied the idea that information needs to be shared more efficiently.  Women need to know how to assess their personal risk for developing certain diseases, like triple negative breast cancer.  Women need to understand that preventative measures could be the difference between life and death.  Women need to understand the importance of participating in clinical trials, especially women of color since they are so underrepresented in the data.  And, last but not least, women need to embrace all that social media has to offer because, although it is cliché, information is key.