More handpicked essays just for you.
Social problems affecting african americans
Health dispairity in african american community essay
Assignment on Health Reform
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the health status of African Americans to the national average. The cultural, socioeconomic and sociopolitical barriers will be addressed. The current health status, health disparity and how promotion is defined by this group will also be considered. According to the CDC report, “History has taught us that good health comes with receiving high quality education and health care, clean air and water, employment and living wage, access to healthy foods, living in a safe and nurturing environment” (Liburd, 2014). Statistics have shown, however, that African Americans are one of the minority groups that are known for poor health due to health disparity based on race, economic status, education …show more content…
Even African Americans who are working, high poverty rates and high insurance rates continue to erode their access to care. Across all ages and notably by age 50, African Americans are living with higher rates of chronic diseases” (Scott, 2002). Because of their high poverty level, this population is faced with barriers such as availability of health service and acceptability. Some providers refused to see people on public assistance or who are uninsured. The geographic location of some of these health facilities causes accessibility problem. Some of these people with chronic diseases such as diabetes only have hospital care. Others refuse care because they believe lack of insurance will cause the physicians to use them for practice or experimentation …show more content…
According to survey findings of African Americans in 2001, nearly one-third of the African Americans were insured during this year, 59% of nonelderly adults were less likely to have job based insurance as compared to 70% white. Lack of insurance reflects wide income disparities: 50% of African Americans compared with 30 percent whites report annual income at poverty level (below 200%). Having a regular doctor is important for quality care but 28% of blacks reported that they don’t have a regular doctor as compared to 19% white. Lack of a regular doctor can also result to less preventative care; 43% blacks had physical examination as compared to 62% whites. Blacks are more likely to report chronic diseases than adults overall (51% black vs 45% for all adults). Although the chronic disease increases with age for all population, blacks have higher rates of chronic disease by age 50. Blacks were generally above national averages for diagnosis of high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer and diabetes. For example, 33% of African Americans diagnosed with high blood pressure compared to 23% of adults overall. Reported tobacco use for Blacks were 20%, compared to 20% overall (Scott). This population is behind on many health fronts because of poverty and lack of education. “Interestingly, older Blacks, still use folk and traditional therapies. Most of these therapies are hypoglycemic agents and can also be toxic. One
Health Disparities and Racism is an ongoing problem that is reflected among society. Health is when an individual is physically, mentally and social well being is complete. However health disparities seems to be a social injustice within various ethnicities. Health disparities range from age, race, income, education and many other things. Even though we realize health disparities are more noticeable depending on the region of country where they live in. Racism is one of the most popular factors, for why it’s known that people struggle with health.
The disparities in the healthcare system contribute to the overall health status disparities that affect ethnic and racial minorities. The sources of ethnic and racial healthcare disparities include cultural barriers, geography differences, or healthcare provider stereotyping. In addition, difficulties in communication between health care providers and patients, lack of access to healthcare providers, and lack of access to adequate health care coverage
If we were to apply a longitude exposure study over the span of 42 years from the time an inner-city child is born, we may conclude that life experiences resulting from potential malnutrition, underprivileged environments, and overall lack of health education are the leading contributors to adult African American deaths. Studies show that 8 of the 10 leading causes in the deaths of African Americans are medical disease, which with proper education and care may have been prevented and/or addressed earlier in their life to diagnose and treat. The fact is Heart Disease is the leading cause of deaths for African Americans. When compared to other ethnicities, some form of heart disease causes 24.5% of African American deaths. These numbers are astounding considering Blacks make up approximately only 14.2% of the total U.S. population. The contributing factor is lack of knowledge and family medical screening. Understanding the history of your genial line specific to your race and ...
Large disparities exist between minorities and the rest of Americans in major areas of health. Even though the overall health of the nation is improving, minorities suffer from certain diseases up to five times more than the rest of the nation. President Clinton has committed the nation to eliminating the disparities in six areas of health by the Year 2010, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be jumping in on this huge battle. The six areas are: Infant Mortality, Cancer Screening and Management, Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, HIV Infection and AIDS, and Child and Adult Immunizations.
Healthcare disparities are when there are inequalities or differences of the conditions of health and the quality of care that is received among specific groups of people such as African Americans, Caucasians, Asians, or Hispanics. Not only does it occur between racial and ethnic groups, health disparities can happen between males and females as well. Minorities have the worst healthcare outcomes, higher death rates, and are more prone to terminal diseases. For African American men and women, some of the most common health disparities are diabetes, cancer, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and HIV infections. Some factors that can contribute to disparities are healthcare access, transportation, specialist referrals, and non-effective communication with patients. There is also much racism that still occurs today, which can be another reason African Americans may be mistreated with their healthcare. “Although both black and white patients tended not to endorse the existence of racism in the medical system, African Americans patients were more likely to perceive racism” (Laveist, Nickerson, Bowie, 2000). Over the years, the health care system has made improvements but some Americans, such as African Americans, are still being treating unequally when wanting the same care they desire as everyone else.
African American senior citizens face a health care crisis too. They have worked all of their lives to secure retirement, but their retirement has been threatened because of the rising cost of long-term medical care. Insurance companies have failed to provide affordable long-term care, protection that most senior citizens need. This lack of long term care and affordability has been a serious problem for the health care system. In some cities, the shortage of hospital beds is so serious that it is common for patients to stay in emergency rooms before they can be admitted to an inpatient room (Drake 109). More than one thousand hospital beds are occupied by people who could be better care for in nursing homes or through home health care (Drake 110). Of the disabled elderly 1.3 million reside in nursing homes (Drake 10). These patients are unable to perform two or more of the basic activities of daily living without assistance.
She demonstrated the inaccuracies and restrictions that each individual program provided to individuals who were not always poor enough to have access to them. She also compared immunization rates among poor minorities in Chicago with immunization records in Third World nations, which illuminated the weaknesses and lack of effectiveness of preventive measures across our nation based on the daunting facts in the city of Chicago. Preventive health was the most severe thing she reported as more care and resources were provided to individuals in their deathbeds instead of simple proactive measures that could prevent diseases and reduce overall cost. Across each example she was able to demonstrate the four separate levels of inadequate health care that are major determinants of poor health for many African American
According to healthypeople.gov, a person’s ability to access health services has a profound effect on every aspect of his or her health, almost 1 in 4 Americans do not have a primary care provider or a health center where they can receive regular medical services. Approximately 1 in 5 A...
In recent discussions of health care disparities, a controversial issue has been whether racism is the cause of health care disparities or not. On one hand, some argue that racism is a serious problem in the health care system. From this perspective, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) states that there is a big gap between the health care quality received by minorities, and the quality of health care received by non-minorities, and the reason is due to racism. On the other hand, however, others argue that health care disparities are not due to racism. In the words of Sally Satel, one of this view’s main proponents, “White and black patients, on average don’t even visit the same population of physicians” (Satel 1), hence this reduces the chances of racism being the cause of health care disparities. According to this view, racism is not a serious problem in the health care system. In sum, then, the issue is whether racism is a major cause of health care disparities as the Institute of Medicine argues or racism is not really an issue in the health care system as suggested by Sally Satel.
For African Americans, there is a major relationship between unemployment and poor health, around one-third of their population is poor and that can cause illness due to a poor diet and bad living conditions. They also have most cost involved if healthcare is needed because they are less likely to have insurance coverage. Distrust in the healthcare system is another problem, because they believe that the care is inadequate or harmful. Also, having racism within healthcare systems can be very detrimental to the African Americans care. Babies in African American families are twice as likely to die than babies in white families. They have problems within their culture with cancer, sickle cell anemia and hypertension. For cancer, they have a 27% higher rate than whites do and for hypertension they are one-third more likely than whites to have it due genetics, poor diet and stress. Sickle cell anemia is worse for anyone with African American descent, one in twelve have the gene and around one in six-hundred actually develop the disease. This disease means that the blood cells will become elongated and pointed which will clog vessels, reducing oxygen flow, and could even cause organ
Despite the substantial developments in diagnostic and treatment processes, there is convincing evidence that ethnic and racial minorities normally access and receive low quality services compared to the majority communities (Lum, 2011). As such, minority groups have higher mortality and morbidity rates arising from both preventable and treatable diseases judged against the majority groups. Elimination of both racial and ethnic disparities is mainly politically sensitive, but plays an important role in the equitable access of services, including the health care ones without discrimination. In addition, accountability, accessibility, and availability of equitable health care services are crucial for the continually growing
Today’s society protects against discrimination through laws, which have been passed to protect minorities. The persons in a minority can be defined as “a group having little power or representation relative to other groups within a society” (The Free Dictionary). It is not ethical for any person to discriminate based on race or ethnicity in a medical situation, whether it takes place in the private settings of someone’s home or in a public hospital. Racial discrimination, in a medical setting, is not ethical on the grounds of legal statues, moral teachings, and social standings.
There are many illnesses that affect various communities in the United States. The African American community tend to top majority of the lists of communities that are most affected. Hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and stroke are some of the most serious health problems that have a drastic effect on the African American community.
Diabetes has become an epidemic that has become rampant within all ethnic groups. However, African Americans are more susceptible to the chronic illness and its ill affects especially males. Approximately, 4.9 million African Americans are currently battling the chronic illness that can be easily maintained and or prevented with the help of educating the importance of nutrition and exercise (Chow, Foster, Gonzales, & McIver, 2012). Currently, with the rising epidemic of diabetes the cost of medical bills has risen substantially. Research has suggested that medical bills that relate to diabetes have cost insurance companies approximately $245 billion dollars, while the direct hit to the consumer is approximately $76 billion dollars (The cost
African Americans face many health issues, it is said that African American as a minority population has the highest rate of health issues. Also amongst many other groups we also suffer from high death rates. Many would ask “what causes these death rates?”. However, we as African Americans tend to suffer from chronic illness and condition, many of which are heart disease and cancer these common threats account for nearly 48 percent of all deaths amongst African American men. Also unintended injuries and strokes are recorded as third and fourth on the leading causes of death in African Americans. However, another common threat would be AIDS and homicides which accounts for more than 8 percent all of deaths among African American males. Furthermore,