Alice Sekimonyo
HLTH 3105
Dr Piper I have learned that etiological causes of death are not diseases but they are what make us sick in the first place. Good examples of etiological causes of death incudes poor diets and inactivity. An epidemiological scientific study of racism classified racism as being an etiological factor for diseases and injuries. Since then, many others researches have been focused on its measurement and how racism plays a major role in health disparities. Despite the lack of agreement on the definition of racism, we cannot deny that racism is a factor that has affected the quality of life of certain groups of people throughout the history. Oxford dictionary defines discrimination as “the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex” (Oxford). Discrimination has been related to depression and anxiety that lead to a poor general health outcome. The concept of racism can be defined as being discriminated against because of one’s skin color. In the 13th annual summer public health video conference in minority health at the University of North Carolina Chapel, four presenters carefully discuss about whether or not racism is really making us sick by looking at different approaches and perspectives.
In order to understand how racism making us sick, it is important to first understands what social determinants of health are and how they can impact our health. The WHO defines
Racism imposes additional health issues on people of color because it is an unnecessary stressor in their every day lives. “African Americans die earlier and have higher rates than whites of many chronic diseases across the social gradient” (Unnatural Causes, 2008). Increased cortisol levels, which are caused by stress have been linked to high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and other health problems.
Although there are a few “race related” diseases, such as sickle cell anemia, the illnesses that are killing the minority population are environment related, like Coronary Heart Disease. In a study done by Alan Goodman, he cites four important points about race and genetics:
This paper focuses disparities and if racism has any influence on treatments given by healthcare providers. The results of the study showed that of the 37 cases tested, 26 of them showed slightly significant evidence of racist beliefs. One of the more confusing aspects of this paper was that I didn’t understand how the researchers measured racism. I felt that measuring racism was an almost daunting task as there is an element of human subjectivism. Furthermore, a better are of study would have been to analyze the geographic influence on disparities. Similar to what we learned in class, disparities often occur because people of a particular region do not have direct access to healthcare. Overall, I felt that this paper had numerous statistics about how and why racism plays a role in disparities, but the results were rather ambiguous in my eyes.
At the point when contrasted with whites, these minority bunches have higher rate of endless ailment, higher mortality and poor wellbeing results. Among the ailment particular cases of racial and ethnic variations in the united state is the tumor frequency rate among African Americans, which is 10% higher than among whites. Furthermore, grown up African Americans and Latinos have roughly double the danger as whites of creating diabetes. Minority likewise have higher rate of cardiovascular sickness, HIV/AIDS, newborn child mortality than whites.
As the appointed Director of the World’s Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health, I have the opportunity to examine the relationship between race and health inequalities. Race is a significant predictor of the distribution of health inequalities as it is quite notable that people with similar biological traits seem to experience a non-random distribution of morbidity and mortality. There are various underlying factors of health inequalities in relation to race. This report will focus on the scientific misconception of racism, the consequences of colonization and environmental injustice.
This can have an effect on the health and life expectancy. It is interesting to look at why blacks have a lower life expectancy than whites. How black have unequal health outcomes and how racial ideologies have changed over time. Looking back at the slavery era in United States, medical care was brutal and ineffective (Golash-Boza, 2016, p.251). Blacks had no right to refuse
Racism can impact victims in ways that affect their health and well-being, biopsychosocially. The effects of racist-incidents to mental
Race has a great impact on the health of a population because it affects the perception of a potential patient. Minority groups face harsh stigmas that dehumanize the quality of their life. Movements such as Black Lives Matter seems to be the 21st century solution to systematic oppression that has been with the United States since the creation of this country. However, this has placed a great barrier for African Americans, Hispanic/Latino and many other underrepresented minorities that is now irreversible. This barrier is detrimental to the physical and mental state/health of minority individuals. Those who do not have to worry about social issues such as police brutality and whether their safety will be compromised because of the pigmentation
Since the discovery of the America; slavery, separate but equal; segregated pools, buses, trains and water fountains; workplace and housing discriminations; as well as other biases and hostilities have served as the painful reality of the United States’ racial health, especially for African Americans, more so those living in Southern States; Let not forget about the beatings, bombings and assassinations.
Social determinants of health are those economic, physical, and social conditions that affect our health and quality of life in the environments in which we are born, where we live, play, learn, worship, work, and grow old.
Mental health issues can develop in an individual as a result of racial stereotyping. “According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Racial and ethnic minorities in the United States face a social and economic environment of inequality that includes greater exposure to racism which takes a toll on mental health”.
Also, I knew that African Americans are more susceptible to chronic health diseases, however I thought this was mainly due to a lower national average SES. I’ve come to learn that the mental strain of being an African American in America also create stressors that negatively impact the total wellbeing of African Americans(Unnatural causes,2014). Lastly, the environment of those suffering from health disparities also plays a major factor in the root causes of health disparities. For instance, Jim lives in a nice community which has access to a wide array of food items, if Jim chooses to eat healthy he has the ability and opportunity to do so. However in the case of Mary Turner, her neighborhood supermarket lacks affordable healthy food items the can beneficially impact her wellbeing.
The Institute of Medicine’s report on health disparities outlined that race has a significant impact on health, and emphasizes that many of these differences are environmental and coincide with racial identity in the United States (Lee 2005). This would imply that even when genetics of a population is taken into consideration, we should still consider race or ethnicity as a variable in order to take account of environmental factors (Tate and Goldstein
The primary method of development for this article is cause and effect. While the author displays the result of racial discrimination in medicine and how it can determine one's health. This causes many problems among individuals as these health
The final major aspect of racism is health. Health affects more blacks than whites concerning this issue. An article from Counterpuch.org claims, When African Americans are interviewed most revel high anxiety levels caused by ill treatment (Golash-Boza). An ample amount of blacks feel conscientious of themselves and their surroundings because of hefty levels of stress due to the pressures of trying to blend in. Counterpunch also adds, “Racism is especially detrimental to people of color, but has negative repercussions for everyone insofar as it is a hindrance to human development” (Golash-Boza). Even though blacks tend to carry more of the weight on this topic, discrimination affects everyone. A section from the Humanrights.org websites adds,