Health Disparities And Issues Among African Americans Essay

Everyone should have the opportunity to achieve a healthy life and have comprehensive health care services available to them. To achieve this healthy life, people need to have access to the health care system and to a health care provider with whom they can develop a trusting relationship. However, existing barriers to attaining health care services often lead to disparities which in turn lead to differences in life expectancy, health status and a higher prevalence of certain chronic diseases (HealthyPeople.gov, 2012).

Healthy People 2020 discusses a number of special population’s that have barriers to care including; race, age sex, sexual identity, age, disability, socioeconomic, and location; this post will discuss race (ethnic) group.  There are a number of races mentioned in healthy people 2020, such as, Asian, American Indian, Alaskan, Latino and African American (Healthy People 2020, n.d.). Access to health care in an ethnic group is multifaceted from the lack of trust, lack of health care education, discrimination and cost of care including health insurance. According to Howard, Peace, & Howard (2014), African Americans have a greater risk of three preventable diseases, hypertension, renal failure and bacterial infections stating; “no other disease

In today’s society, there are many different factors that can contribute to one’s overall health and well-being. Since there are so many different factors that can affect one’s health, there are inequalities that exist among people and this is knows as health disparity. "Health disparities are differences in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden of diseases and other adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups in the United States” (Nhlbi.nih.gov, 2015). Health disparities can be associated with factors such as: socioeconomic status, education, gender, race, ethnicity, age, mental health, and religion. There are certain health problems that can affect different groups more than others, such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS (Surgeongeneral.gov, 2015). One example of a specific population in the United States that is affected by health disparities is the African American Population. While African Americans are affected by various health disparities, one that affects this population more prominently is heart disease.

Many factors contribute to differing racial and ethnic health needs, including culture norms, religious mandates, and health disparities. The health disparities refers to specific differences in disease incidence, health outcomes, quality of health care and access to health care services that exist across racial and ethnic groups (Mandal, 2014). Disparities may result from inadequate access to care, poor quality of care, cultural issues and social determinants.

Health disparities endure tenacious issues in the United States of America, setting certain groups at higher risk of being uninsured, limited access to care, facing a poorer quality of care, and overall negative health outcomes. The high incidence of health disparities reflects the range of individual, social, economic, racial/ethnic and environmental magnitudes. Among the minority groups, African-Americans disproportionately access health care and the health disparities clearly glow in the nationwide.

Access to health care ervices is different betweeen races and it is influenced by geography, income. culture and the types of health coverage.

According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality there are some disparities in quality healthcare based on race and ethnicity.

The aim of this paper is to gain information and knowledge about health disparities. The objectives are to understand what is a disparity, to determine if in fact there are health disparities, to learn who are the target of disparities, to recognize how does a disparity affect the target, and most importantly to assess how can a disparity be eliminated. In addition, this paper will narrow its research to a specific minority: The American Indian elderly population.

A health disparity according to Healthy People 2020 is “a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage” and most commonly affects groups of people that have been faced with

Healthcare disparities have been an issue all over the world for a very long time. The purpose of this paper is to give you knowledge on disparities within the health care environment. This paper will discuss the definition of disparities, types of disparities, reasons for disparities, statistical data from trends and reports, and information on disparities elimination and improvements.

One of the points raised in IOM’s article to prove that racism is a prevalent cause of health care disparity is the way the health care system is set-up, meaning at times, some hospitals and clinics can adopt a policy to contain health care cost, but may pose hindrances to minority patients’ capability to access the care.

Minorities in America (African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos/Hispanic, etc.), are experiencing health disparities and these disparities are proving to be alarmingly fatal and too endemic to ignore; heart disease and stroke are statically most common in greater numbers among people of color. Health disparities among minorities associated with heart disease and stroke stem from social stresses of life (i.e. job security, transportation, living wage, safety as well as affordable living, quality education, food availability, social safety and supportive connections), which also, in turn, impact risky health behaviors and unhealthy patterns associated with daily living. These factors of disparities, according to American Heart Associations (2017), are linked to a number of complex factors that include income and education, genetic and physiological factors, access to care, and communication barriers (Para 3). Communication barriers with Hispanic/Latino and some older Native Americans can cause for doctors visits to be difficult due to limited English, it makes it twice as hard to educate patient with the importance of proper eating and daily health maintenance.

Preventable diseases such as diabetes, and hypertension as well as others are still prevalent even though health care is readily available. The cause of these disparities is due to the continuation of social injustice. Because of racism, poverty, discrimination certain groups in the US cannot obtain care or optimal health. Blacks in America have a higher risk of dying from diabetes because of the lower quality of care they receive (Georges, 2015). Furthermore, it has always been know that the greater the social inequality is the more likely the health disparities will be. In other words, there is a big difference between the privilege and the under-privileged (Andrews & Boyle, 2016).

Which, in simpler terms, is a matter of inequitable access to health services. This suggests the need to focus health equity development programmes on improving fairness in the allocation of health care resources.

On the other hand, health inequity are inequalities that are deemed to be unfair, for example, the distribution of health resources between different population groups, starting from the social condition (Kawachi, Subramanian & Almeida-Filho, 2002). Could be related to a social injustice, and due to political and economic status of a country, and could be reduced by the right mix of government policies