Effects Of Asthma On African Americans

While unfortunately asthma is not a curable disease, for most asthmatics its can be well controlled meaning there will less symptoms or flare-ups and limits to your life. With correct medication, knowledge about the disease and skills, asthma shouldn’t stop you. There are many treatment options available when it comes to asthma. Asthma treatments vary from your basic asthma inhalers to steroids and other anti-inflammatory medicines and asthma nebulizer (Breathing Machine). (Anon., n.d.) The role that medical practitioners play with asthma is a very precise job. This role includes assessment, diagnosis, prescription of regular medications, provision of written action plans, and regular review as well as managing asthma flare-ups. Asthma-related visits to a general practitioner may occur for a variety of reasons, including: the acute or reactive management of asthma symptoms, a visit for maintenance activities, such as monitoring and prescription of regular medications and referral to other health professionals. (Anon.,

Environmental Racism and Health Disparities are two of the many issues that affect the African American community. Environmental Racism occurs when people of color, who disproportionately live in lower income communities, are revealed to dangerous materials consisting of waste and toxins which are used or disposed of in their communities. Health Disparities occur when a group of people suffers inequalities of health advantages when compared to the access to quality health care and health advantages of another group besides the African Americans. Factors that contribute to issues of health disparities are the lack of health care coverage and vulnerability to toxins in the air. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity are common health disparities that deals with heart disease within the

African Americans are twice as likely to die of an illness such as cancer and heart disease as well as, less likely to have health access compared to any other race. African Americans are yet subject to racial discrimination and stereotypes in the health care, that leads them without the correct health screenings and treatments. The root of these racial disparities connects with the intersectionality of race, class, gender and education.

Nicholas and his colleagues found in their study that the children asthma prevalence in East Harlem was about 4 times that of the national prevalence. Specifically, African American children had 3 times higher asthma prevalence. (Nicholas, 2005) Asthma is the leading cause of emergency room evaluations, pediatric hospitalizations, and school absenteeism in New York City (Corburn, Osleeb, & Porter, 2006)

Asthma is a respiratory disease that many people deal with every single day. “According to World Health Organization, approximately 180,000 people die from asthma each year.” (Jardins and Burton 187) Most people never think of asthma as a life threatening disease, but it can be crucial. As the number of people with asthma increases, the more likely you are to come in contact with someone who has been diagnosed with this disease. Asthma is a severe breathing problem that has many complications that is dealt with daily like shortness of breath, chronic cough, tightness of the chest and shortness of breath, my main focus is childhood asthma, allergic asthma, and medication to treat asthma.

The African American community, in contrast to the rest of Norco and Louisiana, is historically afflicted with higher rates of cancer and asthma related deaths (Margie 01:19:29:20 ), and more prone to birth defects (Wilma Subra 01:18:09:03 ). Closely related and contrastingly to this, the white community of Norco tends to have longer lifespans, and are apparently less affected by cancer and asthma (Sal 01:21:11:29 ). The film directly compares these two perspectives, layering them side by side chronologically. The film uses this comparison as evidence that the African American community’s close proximity to the Shell refinery is an environmental determinant to health. Furthermore, that geographic location and environment are factors directly affecting health.

“African Americans have the worst health profile. Disparities in health status are well documented and widely known. However, research on race, ethnicity, and health is controversial. The reason for this is probably linked to the thorny role that race has played in American history and contemporary culture. Because of this history, race engenders emotion, and emotion is the antidote to rationality. Some have called for the end of research on race and health” (Isaac, L pg.

Some people have the option to have a great health care system and reinsure that their well being is being greatly taken care of. However, this is not the case for others. African Americans are proved to have the worst health outcomes (Golash-Boza, 2015). Throughout history, African Americans have always been discriminated based on skin color. Because of this disadvantage African Americans are more prone to stress, leading to negative health outcomes (Golash-Boza, 2015). Discrimination can lead to stress, stress leads to stressful conditions such as poverty, crime, or poor housing. These stressful conditions can lead to unhealthy behaviors such as illegal crime, smoking, or substance use (Golash-Boza,2015). Due to the stressful resources African Americans are dealing with they can deal with these situations by eating unhealthy foods, therefore, causing a negative health outcome. Racism and health are indeed correlated with one another. As stated by Golash-Boza in Race and Racisms, “racial discrimination continues to be prevalent in our society and leads to negative health outcomes for people of color”. Overall racism can affect health in many ways. Those who live in poor neighborhoods, racial bias in medical care, the stress of experience of discrimination, and the social brand of inferiority can have consequences for health (Williams, 1999). Race can be a big factor in the type

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease, the symptoms of asthma are wheezing, coughing, shortness of bread, reversible airflow obstruction as well as bronchospasm in the airways. This disease can manifest from childhood through adulthood if is not well taking care of, also it can become life threatening. According to the article Asthma in US Mexican-Origin Children in Early Childhood: Differences in Risk and Protective Factors by Parental Nativity: Over 900,000 Mexican-origin children in the United States have asthma”. This article explains that there is a 50% chance for the children of Mexican-American origin, of being diagnosed with asthma. On the other hand during this investigation it was noted that: That one of the factors that increases

Hazards and pollutants are apparent in a variety of outcomes. Possible outcomes include asthma, cancer and chemical poisoning (Gee and Payne-Sturges 2004: 1647). Furthermore, “Although debated, the main hypothesis explaining these disparities is that disadvantaged communities encounter greater exposure to environmental toxins such as air pollution, pesticides, and lead” (Gee and Payne-Sturges 2004: 1647). Therefore, disadvantaged groups, such as people of color and the poor, experience greater environmental risks. Additionally, “Blacks in particular are exposed to a disproportionate amount of pollution and suffer the highest levels of lead and pesticide poisoning and other associated health problems” (Jones and Rainey 2006: 474). People of color, essentially, compete to live healthily. For example, African-Americans and Africans alike, struggle with the negative affects of oil refineries and unresponsive governments. The same can be said for Hispanics in California and the natives of Ecuador, who are forced to cope with the pollution of the Texaco oil refineries (Bullard 2001: 4). Environmental racism not only exploits natural resources, it abuses and profits from the communities involved. Governments and polluting facilities will continue to capitalize on the economic susceptibilities of poor communities, states, nations and regions for their “unsound” and hazardous operations (Bullard 2001: 23).

Asthma is a chronic condition that is characterized by episodes of reversible airflow obstruction as known as asthma attacks or flare ups. Asthma attacks can be caused by several triggers including exercise, allergens, smoke, and respiratory infections. Asthma cannot be cured; however, asthma can be controlled by avoidance of known triggers and proper medical care. Asthma affects 10.5 million children in the United States. In 2010, asthma accounted for 3,404 deaths, 439,400 hospitalizations, 1.8 million emergency room visits, and 14.2 million primary care physician office visits.

Despite the availability of many effective treatments and evidence-based interventions, asthma still a significant problem in public health between children. Asthma is one of the top causes of hospital admission and emergency visits in the United States children (Mansfield, et al, 2015). Asthma causes significant restrictions on child’s activities, many work absences for parents, quality of life, and many absences from school days due to the increasing symptoms exacerbation. The severity of asthma may vary over the period of time, regularly, it is hard to categorize, and may not always be checked by objective procedures for instance lung function tests (Mansfield, et al, 2015). Theoretically, care of asthma stressed that the various set of

Effective treatment of allergic asthma also includes identifying and avoiding the allergens that triggers the symptoms, using drug therapies and developing an emergency action plan for severe attacks of asthma.

Asthma is a chronic inflammation of the respiratory system that affects both children and adults. It is the major cause of absenteeism in school-aged children, with an estimated average of 13 million missed school days in the year 2008 (CDC, 2015). Asthma is also considered to be the third leading cause for hospitalizations among children under the age of 15 (Bruzzese et al., 2010). There is no cure for asthma currently but it can be controlled through avoidance or triggers. Triggers are what cause asthma symptoms to occur. Symptoms of asthma are shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing and tightness of chest. Studies show there is a lack of communication between teachers, parents and school nurses. Interventions for school staff especially

Asthma is a chronic airway disease that can be difficult to manage, resulting in poor outcomes and high costs (Kuhn et al., 2015). It is characterized by episodes of expiratory airflow obstruction, which occurs in response to multiple stimuli or triggers. Asthma is a lifelong disease, and symptoms include wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing. Attacks can be mild, moderate, severe, or even life threatening and limit a person’s way of life (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2011). There is no known cure for asthma, but symptoms can be controlled by avoiding the triggers and taking prescribed medicines that prevent or minimize symptoms.