The Mississippi Delta region is the junction of four southern states, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. It is there that any thirst from the heat that suffocates the Deep South is quenched by the mighty river often referred to as the Nile of the New World. It is on those banks that the Men's Health Initiative is taking root.
The Mississippi River’s supply of fresh water and nutrients is the life-blood for the region’s agricultural trade and for its abundance of natural resources. But, as author, photographer and folklorist Tom Rankin noted in his article, "Cane Brakes, High Water, Drought: The Mississippi Delta", "Just as the Delta can be rich and fertile, it can also be poor and desolate." Initiatives such as the 1996 Farm Bill were designed to develop strategies aimed at addressing poverty among Delta dwellers. However, indigence and other hardships, including health anomalies, inadequacies in health care and health care coverage continue to exist. Hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and stroke related deaths in the Delta are greater than the national average.
The Mississippi Men’s Health Initiative, a program of the National Center for Primary Care at the Morehouse School of Medicine, examined data from four counties in Mississippi: Coahoma, Tallahatchie, Tunica and Quitman. They noted several common threads woven through those areas, such as common causes of death, uninsured or underinsured, level of education, poverty rates and the number of physicians serving the populations of each county. For men, the insurance and health issues are of greater consequence than for women. For minority men, the needs are more pressing.
A series of fact sheets provide an overview of the health status of men in the Mississippi Delta.