Health Disparities And Health Equity

According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (Kassandra, A., 2015), the issue of health disparities have impacted many people’s lives in the community where the minority groups do not have equal access to the quality health care. These

The basis of this publication assesses the progress being made to health disparities, and the efficacy of efforts being made to address social determinants of those disparities. Furthermore, it also touches on the efforts being made to reduce health disparities on the federal, state, and local level.

Healthy People 2020 (2015) states, health disparities are a health outcome of greater or lesser extent between populations, which includes populations by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, education, income, or geographic location. The purpose of the post is to discuss how disparities play a role in health, employment, and education for African Americans. I will also discuss two nursing interventions to decrease health disparities in this population, as well as challenges to implementing the nursing interventions.

I enjoyed reading your DQ1 post this week, and there are a lot of contributing factors that led to disparities within the health care system. There are a lot of federal initiative to help aid in decreasing disparities within the health care system like the National HIV/AIDS strategy. The Healthy People 2020 initiative has been a useful tool to track disparities within the United States (U.S.) healthcare system. They analyze and track a wide variety of factors that can lead to disparities like geographic location, ethnicity, and sexual orientation (chap. 11). To end disparities, there has to be an effective way to monitor progression and educate every individual in the health care system about disparities. But like

1. What does the term health disparities mean? Health disparity is a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic, and environmental disadvantage. "Health disparities affect group of people who have systematically experienced greater obstacles to health based on their racial or ethnic group." (Kotch, 2013 pg. 233) 2.

While there is no clear definition of what health disparities are, Healthy People 2020 defines them as “differences that occur by gender, race or ethnicity, education or income, disability, geographic location, or sexual orientation” (Adler, 2008). Health disparities are not determined by solely biological differences, but rather more attributed to the environment surrounding a person. The public health industry is so concerned about racial health disparities that stem from the social environment

Minority health disparities continue to be a pervasive problem within the United States.The Institute of Medicine defines disparity as, “differences in treatment provided to members of different racial or ethnic groups that are not justified by underlying health conditions or preferences” (Snowden 526). Despite adjustments made to access-related factors, insurance and income, minorities still tend receive lower-quality health care than whites (Flores, Olsen and Tomany-Korman 183). According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Relatively little progress has been made toward the goal of eliminating racial/ethnic disparities” (Gronman and Ginsburg 226). In this paper, I will describe the different health disparities that racial, ethnic and sexual minorities experience throughout their lives. I will then discuss the policies health care providers and government entities have put in place in order to eliminate the disparities between minorities and whites.

Description of health disparity is a measure of the difference in health outcomes across populations. There are health disparities in income, poorer health in population living, as well as racial and ethnic differences, with Hispanic Americans, African-Americans and Native Americans; they are having majority

Throughout the course we discussed the causes of health disparities which really impact me a lot, due to my directly work with minorities. I hear many times that stress can kill a person, and based The Death Gap stress it focus on structural violence throughout the book, it is the policies and laws that determines your access to a quality life. Minorities are segregated into certain communities where there is poverty, violence and less access to resources and that has a major impact in the quality of health and life that leads to premature death. African American are victims of discrimination when trying to buy a house on a more well off area, or rental discrimination. Income inequality affects minorities and access to health care. We need

The disparities are around us every day and unless we educate ourselves and our communities these disparities will continue to wreak havoc on our neighborhoods and in the future, we will just be putting our kids and their kids in a continuing cycle of ignorance when we could have done more if it’s just educating the community we leave in, that alone could be enough to turn the tides in our people favor. In turn, I would hope this paper enlighten you on what is going on in our neighborhood and what we can do to correct this issue to preserve our autonomy. Racial and ethnic health disparities undermine what a healthcare system should stand for. Although the top three causes and seven of the 10 leading causes of death are the same for African Americans and whites, the risk factors and incidence, morbidity, and mortality rates for these diseases and injuries often are greater among blacks than whites (MMWR, 2005). Health disparities refer to differences in disease risks, incidence, morbidity, and mortality but most of all for the sake of this paper unequal access to quality health insurance amongst African American in the United States, which will also go hand and hand with the social and economic disadvantages. The disadvantages of health disparities usually affect people of African American descent who have systemically experienced a greater social and economic obstacle to health care.

There are three categories that summarize health disparities in the U.S. The first is disparities that have a social or economic cause rather than a biological cause. An example of this would be that the death rates of black American men are 26 percent higher than that of white men. Also, the death rates of black American woman are 19 percent higher than that of white women. An explanation for this is because blacks have a lower socioeconomic status than white. The reason for this is because blacks are more likely than white to never graduate high school, or graduate high school but not go to college (Barr, 43). Therefore, those with low socioeconomic status can’t afford to go to the doctor which results in a health disparity. The second category

Potter and Perry (2017) states, “Health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health.” Health disparity is experienced by social disadvantaged populations. These vulnerable populations can include race or ethnicity, gender, education, income, disability, and geographic location (Potter & Perry, 2017, p. 33). The Banes family

Health equality is a system where there are no health disparities (as cited in Yukiko, Hurley, Norheim, & Johri, 2015). There are equal opportunities for quality health care for all, regardless of race, status, or income levels. Inequality of health care is out of an individual’s control and is viewed as unfair (Yukiko et al., 2015). Health inequities measure the amount of inequality in health. “In the measurement of health equity, a question arises as to how we should classify unexplained health inequality- fair or unfair, which is an ethical question (Yukiko et al., 2015,

He states that “it doesn’t matter how you achieve it but that you do” (2011). No one pathway taken to greater equality will be the same for differing countries but there are lessons to be learned regarding how similar countries were able to be successful. Sweden was able to attain greater equality by closing the income gap through taxation, having a generous welfare state and benefits for its citizens; on the other hand, Japan was able to do it by having smaller income gaps before taxes and a smaller welfare state (Wilkinson, 2011). What was eye-opening and previously not considered by me was that the same contrasts were seen among states in the U.S. according to Wilkinson. The relationship between justice and health goes beyond health, and includes the structural and political institutions that are intertwined with health as well. Both avenues to greater equality discussed above contained some type of structural or political change that produced an outcome beneficial to all most likely in the areas of health, education, occupation, and improved social conditions. Having this information can direct actions towards looking at all possible approaches to combating inequalities, even those that seem out of the norm or have not been a part of the conversation in the past. Exploring options such as focusing on reducing health inequalities on a small scale (i.e. state level) instead of on the national level; how this looks and what results could potentially come from it are considerations of justice in our healthcare system. Inequalities, whether income, racial, or health based did not spring up overnight; they are the result of historical, political, and economic policies and decision making that shaped the landscape of countries where inequality

Director of the Center on Social Disparities in Health at the University of California, San Francisco