Health Interview Survey

The article is from the American Journal of Public health and provides surveys, graphs and statistics. The article has multiple authors and they are all in the medical field or professors that work at high prestige Universities like Harvard or Northwestern University.It was last modified on February of 2013.The article is a peer review journal and because of the credentials of the authors it seems reliable and credible

The health status of the population in the United States is a national priority. The Healthy People 2020 outlines priorities and to improve the health of individuals and communities across the country. Healthy People 2020 is defined as a comprehensive set of national objectives for “improving the health of all Americans” (Healthy People 2020, n.d, para. 1). The Healthy people 2020, is aimed at improving the health of individuals and communities and envisions “a society in which all people live long, healthy lives” (Healthy People 2020, n.d, para 4). A short priority list was developed and contains twenty-six objectives knowns as Leading Health Indicators (LHI). The list of objectives was created to prioritize health issues that must be addressed and to find appropriate actions to take in order to improve the health of the population.

Socioeconomic status is a health disparity in the United States. In 2012, McHenry concluded that there are approximately 84,000 preventable deaths that occur each year. Although the ACA has provided accessible health care to many people that would otherwise not be able to afford health insurance there still is a large population uninsured (Brown & Divenere, 2017). African Americans have a high prevalence of

Although the United States is a leader in healthcare innovation and spends more money on health care than any other industrialized nation, not all people in the United State benefit equally from this progress as a health care disparity exists between racial and ethnic minorities and white Americans. Health care disparity is defined as “a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social or economic disadvantage…adversely affecting groups of people who have systematically experienced greater social and/or economic obstacles to health and/or clean environment based on their racial or ethnic group; religion; socioeconomic status; gender; age; mental health; cognitive, sensory or physical disability; sexual orientation or gender identity; geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion” (National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities [NPAEHD], 2011, p. 3). Overwhelming evidence shows that racial and ethnic minorities receive inferior quality health care compared to white Americans, and multiple factors contribute to these disparities, including geography, lack of access to adequate health coverage, communication difficulties between patients and providers, cultural barriers, and lack of access to providers (American College of Physicians,

Amongst the other industrialized countries of the world, the United States has the worst healthcare system (Davis, Stremikis, Squires, & Schoen, 2014). This ranking does not come from a lack of funds, considering the United States spends more than twice as much per capita than the United Kingdom which is ranked at number one (Davis, Stremikis, Squires, & Schoen, 2014). A major problem is America is the health disparities that vary across the nation. Health disparities “refer to differences in access to or availability of facilities and services. Health status disparities refer to the variation in rates of disease occurrence and disabilities between socioeconomic and/or geographically defined population groups”("Health Care Disparities", 2009). Even though one RAND study suggests that virtually every demographic is at risk of not receiving needed care, there are definitely certain populations that are at higher risk of falling victim to these disparities ("National healthcare quality and disparities report 2014", 2015). A majority of Maine’s population falls into one of these riskier demographics, which is and will continue to affect the health and quality of life for Mainers if not addressed.

Amy Wilson-Stronks, M.P.P., Project Director, Health Disparities, Division of Quality Measurement and Research, The Joint Commission. Paul Schyve, M.D., Senior Vice President, The Joint Commission Christina L. Cordero, Ph.D., M.P.H., Associate Project Director, Division of Standards and Survey Methods, The Joint Commission Isa Rodriguez, Project Coordinator, Division of Quality Measurement and Research, The Joint Commission Mara Youdelman, J.D., L.L.M., Senior Attorney, National Health Law Program

US Department of Health and Human Services (2014) Healthy People.Gov: 2020 Topics and Objectives. Retrieved from: http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/default.aspx

It is estimated that 20% of the U. S. population use herbal medicine. “The prevalence of herbal medicine use by some ethnic and cultural groups in the US may be even higher; one meta-analysis found that 4% to 40% (mean 30%) of Latinos living in the United States regularly used herbal medicine” (Kiefer, Tellez-Giron, & Bradbury, 2014, p. 64). The growing number of Latinos in the US and their reliance on herbal remedies is something that healthcare providers are going to have to address to be able to provide culturally competent care to this population.

According to Kouame (2010), approximately 51 million, or 20%, Americans live in the rural areas and depend on local resources for their health care. This population is at risk for less than adequate health care due to the lack of resources and support available. Nearly half of the rural residents in the US have at least one chronic health condition (Harvey & Janke, 2014) higher than their counterparts in the urban setting, and meeting the complex needs of this population has become a challenge in the current health care system. The lack of resources increase hospital readmission rates and use of emergency departments to manage chronic illnesses. Klug, Knudson, and Muus (2010), identified a rural readmission rate of 17.6% with 76% of those readmissions potentially preventable.

(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, 2013).

This research study analyzes the publically available data from California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) 2011–2012 dataset. CHIS is the largest and most comprehensive state-based health survey in the United States. It is a population-based telephone survey of California’s population. CHIS is conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (UCLA-CHPR) in collaboration with the California Department of Public Health, the Department of Health Care Services, First 5 California, The California Endowment, the National Cancer Institute, and Kaiser Permanente (UCLA-CHPR, 2013). CHIS data and results are used extensively by federal and State agencies, local public health agencies and organizations, advocacy and

Just like with every program, service, or systems in place, not all is perfect. There are many challenges that can make it an obstacle. For our nation, it is the gaps between the most susceptible citizens in regards to “illness, injury, risk behaviors, use of preventive health services, exposure to environmental hazards, and premature death” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011).

The study setting included a United States civilian non-institutionalized population. This study included 51,946 adults over the age of 18, who reported having at least one or more physician or clinical visit within the past year. Covariates were addressed by sociodemographics, propensity to utilize health care,

When the table was finished, and all the patients had been sectioned into their groups, they found no significant difference between the age, sex, or any of the other divisions. They did however find that the people who did receive the traditional Chinese medicine did have a lower percent of strokes than the patients that did not receive the traditional Chinese medicine. The actual percentages were 5.8% of the people who did receive the traditional Chinese medicine had strokes, versus 12% of the people who did not receive traditional Chinese medicine had a stroke. Even though there was no significant difference in the age and sex divisions of the patients, women did experience less strokes and the younger the patients were did show a slight decrease in

Undisputed and well documented, the prevalence of chronic diseases is the predominant challenge to health around the globe (Bauer et al., 2014). Although the United States spends more per capita on health care than any other country, Americans are less healthy, die sooner, and experience more illness compared to other high-income countries (Bauer et al., 2014; Institute of Medicine (IOM), 2013; Murray et al., 2013). Data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) revealed that approximately half of all noninstitutionalized adults in the U.S. (~117 million) suffer from at least one chronic disease (Ward, Schiller, & Goodman, 2014). Furthermore, the number of older adults (65 years) is expected to increase from 35 million in 2000 to 72 million in 2030 (Johnson et al., 2014). This demographic shift, combined with an increased average life expectancy and advances in medical treatment options, is expected to steadily increase the number of people living with multiple chronic conditions (Anderson & Horvath, 2004; Bauer et al., 2014; Bodenheimer, Chen, & Bennett, 2009; Johnson et al., 2014).