When I think of the United States and how we are doing as a country, I tend to think that we’re pretty good with all that we do. With all the military protection and technological advancements, the United States seems to be in optimal shape. But when it comes to the wellness of the people and healthcare, I always thought that we were lacking in that department. I decided to use China as the competitor to compare the health statuses and disparities that both these industrialized and well-developed countries differentiate in. In this essay, I will be comparing the life expectancy age, mortality rate under 5 years old, the economy with government aid, along with the obesity percentage of the population and with those that participate in physical activity.
To start with, the US has a life expectancy rate of 77 years old for males and 82 years old for women. Whereas, for China it is 75 and 78 years old, respectively. With this discrepancy, this emphasizes the health care access that both these countries withhold. According to
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the World Health Organization (WHO), based on the government’s allowance to help fund for health care is a huge factor to how much health care can go around. For the US, our government is willing to factor out 17.1% of their gross domestic product (GDP), which is about $9,403 (WHO, 2017) to help fund for their people’s well-being. Whereas for China, they are only willing to bring up 5.5% of their GDP, which is about $731 (WHO, 2017) for their people’s health. Based on the amount of the government’s help, it helps determine the availability of help the government could supply. This plays a factor to the mortality rate under the age of 5 years old. The infant mortality rate of the US is 7% (UNICEF, 2013), which is exactly half the percentage of China’s 14% (UNICEF, 2013) of the population. This emphasizes the importance of how government aid is able to greatly impact the mortality rates of the country. Another issue that affects the mortality rate of each of the countries is the obesity level and physical activity level of the countries. The US has 33.7% (Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 2016) of their population considered to be obese and only 49% (Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 2016) of the population is participating in aerobic physical exercise. China, on the other hand, has a 6.9% (ProCon, 2016) of their population deemed as obese along with a 66.3% (NIH) of their population that performs physical exercise. Looking at the US, we tend to excel over China when it comes to the government and its open access to health aid. Conversely, China lacks the willingness to help provide more funding for healthcare. Due to China’s vast population size of 1.4 billion people (WHO, 2017), it would be safe to say that China would not be able to come up with the money to be able to fund for health care for their huge population. Along with the lack of funding, China is not able to decrease their mortality rate due to the lack of government aid. But what China lacks in funding, they make up with the overall health through exercise and the physical being of their people. As compared to the US, China maintains a low percentage of obesity levels while proactively advocating physical activity into the people’s daily lives. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), China determines being physically attractive as “participation in 30 or more minutes of daily moderate or vigorous activity. Work-related physical activity was any moderate or vigorous activity during work time among those who reported being physically active (30 or more minutes of daily moderate or vigorous activity). Leisure-time physical activity was any moderate or vigorous activity during leisure time among those who reported being physically active (30 or more minutes of daily moderate or vigorous activity)” (Muntner et al., 2005). (Muntner et al., 2005). One way that China implements daily physical activity is with starting with the young and implementing a morning exercise routine for the students of all ages. They are required to participate before going to class. This exercise set is called Tai Chi. As described by the NIH, they state that Tai Chi is “performed as a highly choreographed, lengthy, and complex series of movements. It emphasizes the same basic principles for practice, that is, the three regulations of body focus, breath focus and mind focus. Therefore, Tai Chi efficiently disseminate the benefits to populations in need of cost effective, safe and gentle methods of physical activity, stress reduction, health promotion and wellness context” (Muntner et al., 2005). Moving further, in order to help the lack of physical exercise and the increasing rate of obesity for the US, the US should adopt the morning routines from China in order to promote more physical activity among the children and adults. This would definitely decrease the obesity percentage level and increase the percentage of the population that does engage in physical activity. For China, due to their massive population, it may be difficult for them to generate more funding for health care. But by enabling the One Child Policy, it does speed up the process of reducing population growth to be able to provide more to their people. With the restrictive policy, each family will be more focused on providing for one child rather than the separation of attention, thus China will be able to reduce their infant mortality rate. At the end of my research of the health statuses of these two countries, I learned that not one country is perfect.
We are all missing or lacking in one construct that others may be progressing at. But the great thing about these differences is that it allows us to learn from others and see what works for them and implement them to work for us. It is a learning process that can cohesively help the well-being the people overall. This brought to light that each country has their own customs that may lead to a deficit of health, but it is done for a purpose. Hence, the One Child Policy in China. It was implemented to reduce the population size to provide more health care for the people. For the US, we have more of an abundance of health care access but even though we have an ample amount of help given, it doesn’t affect the obesity rate of the US. This proves that although we find a solution for one problem, we still have another obstacle to get
over. To conclude with, when comparing the two countries based on their government aid and physical health, it was interesting to see the relevancy of how certain issues correlate with why certain data is the way it is. Although both countries are already “well developed” and “industrialized”, they are far from perfect. They still have their flaws but it does not inhibit them from growing and making changes for the better for their people. But overall, both the countries have their strengths and weaknesses that can be balanced with the adoption of other practices that other countries excel with.
D1: I have decided to look at a 6 year old going through bereavement. Bereavement means to lose an individual very close to you. When children go through bereavement they are most likely to feel sad and upset about the person’s death. Children at a young age may not understand when a family member dies. Children may not understand bereavement. For example a 6 year old’s father been in a car crash and has died from that incident. Death is unpredictable and children can’t be prepared for a death of a family member as no one knows when someone is going to die or not. Unfortunately every child can experience bereavement even when a pet dies. It is important that we are aware that effects on the child so we can support them in the aftermath.
Question Quote "I doubt that these experiences are unique to the hospitals or the medical school at which I have thus far trained. I expect that they pervade health care systems throughout the country. I give credit to my medical school for teaching me to be critical of the culture of medicine, apply interdisciplinary perspectives to clinical quandaries, and reflect on my experiences." (Brooks KC. 2015.)
Culture plays a key role in the quality of healthcare or health insurance services offered to patients. Disparities are ethnic or racial differences in the quality of healthcare. Ethnic or racial minorities tend to receive poor quality healthcare services compared to the majority ethnic group.
2.3 Explain how the health and social care practitioner own values, beliefs and experiences can influence delivery of care.
There are several issues concerning the uninsured and underinsured patient population in America. There are many areas of concern the congressional efforts to increase the availability of health insurance, the public image of the insurance industry illustrated by the movie "John Q", the lack of good management tools, and creating health insurance coverage for all low income Americans. Since the number of uninsured Americans has risen to 43 million from 37 million in the flourishing 1990s and could shoot up even more severely if the economy continues to decrease and health care premiums keep increasing (Insurance No Simple Fix, 2001).
The elimination of disparities in mental health care among ethnic, racial and underprivileged populations, specifically minorities remains a challenge amongst mental health care workers and medical professionals. Many minority areas are more impoverished, rely on government assistance and have a higher incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, chronic diseases, and injuries compare to any other ethnicity. In recent studies there are strategies to help eliminate disparities in mental health care, such as improving health care access, quality, offering diverse mental health workforce, providers, and patient education. These are just several strategies that can help assist in disparities. The goal is to reduce or eliminate racial, ethnic and socioeconomic health inequalities that affect minorities.
America has a lower life expectancy. The life expectancy of the United States fares poorly to other countries. There are high mortality rates above the age of 50 because of the low performance of the health care system. While the US does screen well for cancer, survival rates of cancer, survival rates of heart attacks, strokes, and the medication for patients with high blood pressure or cholesterol. In greater depth there is a high mortality rate for prostate and breast cancer. We can see that the united States have a faster decline in the mortality rate for these two diseases than any other countries. And the gap between higher and lower income Americans has soared in recent decades according to a study. The failing wages for low income Americans have left 16 percent households classified as food insecure. And since America has a low life expectancy it’s hard to keep up with the diseases that are always popping up. Let’s take cancer for example, we have been fighting it for a long time and there is no cure for it. So the health insurance companies pay a lot to keep you for those treatments. And your health
Fan, Jessie X., Ming Wen, Lei Jin, and Guixin Wang. 2012. “Disparities in Healthcare Utilization in China: Do Gender and Migration Status Matter?” J Fam Econ Iss 34 (2013): 52-63.
Access to health care refers to the ease with which an individual can obtain needed medical services. Many Americans face barriers that make it difficult to obtain basic health care services. These barriers to services include lack of availability, high cost, and lack of insurance coverage. "Limited access to health care impacts people's ability to reach their full potential, negatively affecting their quality of life." (Access to Health Services, 2014) Access to health services encompasses four components that include coverage, services, timeliness, and workforce
Another important factor in health is number of hospital beds. The numer of hospital beds is the access to health care for serious problemes. In first again Japan has one hospital bed for every 74 people. In the China, there is one hospital bed for every 242 people. In the United States, there is one hospital bed for every 243 people. The last thing that proves Japan has the best health is infant mortality rate.
Just like any other society, there exists a broad difference in the indicators and outcomes of health statistics among the Chinese Americans (Lean & Lee, 2012). Different types of health conditions affecting the Chinese Americas all through the United States include; cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, cardiovascular and hepatitis B.
First of all, to begin with the problem that poverty can have a devastating effect on people’s health, especially in rural China. For example, people who live in poverty do not have enough money to buy food and water. They are really affected by mal-nutrition. Furthermore, people who live in poverty have limited access to medical facilities, so if they get sick, they are unable to be treated and obtain medicine. According to Health Poverty Action (n.d), “The cost of doctors’ fees, a course of drugs and transport to reach a health centre can be devastating, both for an individual and their relatives who need to care for them or help them reach and pay for treatment.”
In the operation of the healthcare system, gender plays a central role. Gender discrimination in the healthcare exists either in the field of education, workplace or while attending to the patients. Interestingly, as opposed to other areas where discrimination lies heavily to a particular gender; gender inequality in health happens to both women and men. Gender inequality in the health care service negatively affects the quality of care given and perpetuates patient biases to a gender. Also, the gender disparities in the field of health assists researchers and practitioners to study conditions and their probable manifestations within both sexes.
...ue to numerous medical errors. With the amount of medical errors that currently do occur which is a current health care issue it cost the health care billions of dollar each year to fix the mistakes that were made.
Everyone is always competing for the best health care. Different health care systems are different through out the world, but all with similar ideas of at least delivering some form of health care. Some countries in particular will be highly emphasized: Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Japan in how they work with cost, access, and quality with in the health care systems in their own countries.