Longevity In America

Among the different ethnic and socioeconomic groups, each is associated with health disadvantages. While some have more advantages than others, the most disadvantaged groups are among the Blacks and Native Americans. These two groups have the highest rates of several health disparities. The two groups, Blacks, and Native Americans have the highest rates in infant mortality and cardiovascular disease. Research has shown several key risk factors that are associated with these high rates. Some include poor environment, lack of access to care, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and high blood pressure. These health disparities and disadvantages are what causes Blacks and Native Americans to have higher mortality rates.

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:

Racial differences in socioeconomic status (education, income, occupation, health) are well documented. For example, black people have a higher death rate from cardiovascular diseases, breast cancer, and diabetes compared to the rest of the population. In addition, black people are less likely than white people to receive optimal care for their health conditions. Furthermore, black people are three times more likely to live in poverty than white people, and their median household earnings are significantly lower than whites. Slavery, Jim Crow laws, and other forms of discrimination are directly linked to African Americans socioeconomic statuses. Legal racist practices made it harder for African Americans to accumulate wealth (Gaskin, Headen, & White-Means, 2005).

Although it is intuitive to hypothesize that disparities in health arise because of socioeconomic differences between racial groups, studies often find that racial disparities persist even after accounting socioeconomic factors. Ethnicity is highly correlated with residential location, with minorities and whites often living segregated from one another. Differential residential location comes with differential exposure to health risks.

America 's elder population is living longer. Current data trends show that 46.2 million people living in America are age 65 and older (Millennials Outnumber Baby Boomers ",2015). Research shows the life expectancy of the average American woman is 81.2 years of age. Although advancements in medicine continue to evolve there remains one condition which impedes the quality of life for this growing population. Dementia, an Alzheimer 's related condition which hinders the quality of life for 3.2 million woman in the United States ("Latest Alzheimer 's Facts",2013). To date, there are no effective treatments available to cure dementia, however efforts are being made to alleviate aggression, depression and sleep disturbances associated with the disease. Current treatment options for the symptoms of dementia often leave those affected with serious side effects. In an effort to reduce the side effect of antipsychotic and anxiolytics medications, families are beginning to look at other controversial treatment options. One such treatment being researched is the use of medical marijuana.

The relationship between race and health has different variants. It seems as though race does have an effect on what health you have. However, it comes from more of the outside factors that affect what happens to different races and their health outcomes. These outside factors are include what chapter five describes as nation and social class. In chapter six race matters when analyzing the data on their behavior between obesity and exercise with poverty playing a small factor in these results.

The book says and it makes sense to an extent that people of lower social status have in general poorer health and higher mortality rate. Beyond that it makes a whole lot more sense that there are numerous and annoyingly complex factors that can lead up to the poorer health that relates to lower status. The book also talks about race, which really goes and links itself with the social status parts, since in America (which is what/where they mentioned) there is a moderate alignment of race to social status. Now when bringing up higher socioeconomic status that doesn't necessarily mean a person will live longer, regardless of race, but it certainly helps. Now to start the rant of the annoying and complex events that relate to social status. When

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

With the aging society in America means that there will be larger number of older people than young people. As a result of this fewer people will have to pay taxes to support public necessities and there will be fewer young people to provide services for the elders. This will also highly affect the health care in America because many seniors will have a chronic illness and there will be a shortage of healthcare workers to assist them. This will affect retirement because retirement income is made up of welfare payments, savings, and public and private pensions. Most publicly financed retirement pensions are funded by programs or most commonly know, social security. Social security is a universal income support program for elders and is usually

These differences in heart disease, known as health disparities, are a key reason that there is a racial discrepancy in life expectancy in Baltimore City: African-American men die 6.7 years earlier than Whites and African-American

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

The United States is goal orientated; therefore it could be argued that the premise to achieve successful aging is on par with our historical and cultural beliefs. Unlike other cultures or countries America is a ‘melting pot’ without a common philosophy defining the meaning of life or how life should be lived. For example, Traditional Hinduism, Chinese Confucianism, and Japanese Ikigai have cultural mores that provide for the role of aging in their societies (Moddy & Sasser, 2015, p. 36).The common thread for citizens in America is to achieve a better life at all stages. Thus, from cultural context the words are in sync with the American way.

Great discrepancies have grown in the physical health of the citizens. Nearly half of African Americans born in year 2000 are expected to develop type II diabetes. Blacks are 30 percent more likely to die young from heart disease than white or any other racial group.

Blacks have worse health, even when economics are controlled (Randall 1). Specifically, middle-class whites are healthier than middle-class blacks (Randall 1). Actually, middle-class blacks live ten years on average less than middle-class Whites, and poor Blacks live three years less than poor whites (Randall 1). Additionally, racial health disparities are explained by the stress of living in a prejudiced society (Randall 1).

The aging population in the United State is at risk for not only chronic health problems, but abuse including, physical, sexual, psychological/emotional, and/or financial. With the increase number of elders being seen by healthcare professionals it is important to know what suspicions to look for, to report accurately and appropriately.