Race Advances Health Care Research

Over the 200-year history of the United States of America, race has been central to various social issues. To this day, March 24th, 2017, the socially constructed concept of race has a major influence on how a person is treated by society (Onwuachi-Willig, 2016). In this section of the class we are discussing the interplay between race and healthcare.

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:

Finally, advocates of race-based medicine claim that the scientific underpinnings are irrelevant if a medication is proven to be effective for a particular group. In such a way, race-based medicine is a short-term solution, treating the symptoms of race-related disease without understanding the

Health disparities undoubtedly exist among different racial groups with Healthy People 2020 identifying reducing racial gaps and infant mortality as a critical objective (Loggins & Andrade, 2013). Black children are reportedly two times more likely to die during their first year of life than white children (Huffington Post). Furthermore, the overall infant mortality rate is 6 deaths per 1,000 births, but for African American infants the mortality rate is 13.31 deaths per 1,000 births (CDC). There have been many medical advances, such as prescreening to find health issues that contribute to health disparities, but each racial group still do not benefit equally.

“African Americans have the worst health profile. Disparities in health status are well documented and widely known. However, research on race, ethnicity, and health is controversial. The reason for this is probably linked to the thorny role that race has played in American history and contemporary culture. Because of this history, race engenders emotion, and emotion is the antidote to rationality. Some have called for the end of research on race and health” (Isaac, L pg.

Now that we have examined the shortcomings and economic motivations behind the creation of BiDil we will address the theological response to BiDil and other medicines like it. Dr. Kirk Johnson, a graduate of Drew University and professor at Berkley, expresses in his article, A Black Theological Response to Race-Based Medicine: Reconciliation in Minority Communities, that “race-based medicine continues to sustain the labels of race in society and medicine” (1097). Dr. Johnson goes on to explain that the very idea of race-based medicine contributes to the continued oppression of African-Americans by associating diseases and medical conditions with a singular racial group (Johnson, 1098). However, Johnson asserts that “Black theology condemns

Be that as it may, currently in medicine there is different tests and practices for different ethnic backgrounds. Doctors will read and gauge tests differently solely on the fact a patient is African-American(TedxTalk). If we are connected down to 99 percent in our DNA, are we not all the same?(TedxTalk). Health and life insurance companies have adopted the same policies. If an individual is African-America, some companies

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

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

In chapter thirty-five, Race, Gender, and Partnership in the Patient-Physician Relationship, Thomas A. LaVesit analyzes a study conducted to answer questions related to minority patients, minority physicians, and the race and gender concordance or discordance in the patient-physician relationship. The study used a baseline survey for a randomized clinical trial in which it evaluates interventions to improve the overall care of primary care patients with depression. The main independent variable for the study involved the patient’s race and ethnicity, also the physician’s race and ethnicity, and gender concordance or discordance in the patient-physicians relationship. The main dependent variable was PDM styled. In this study it was discovered

The mistreatment of the health care system needs to be addressed at multiple levels of analysis. Several studies have demonstrated that prejudice in the health care system at the interpersonal relationship with healthcare providers), institutional (quality of healthcare services and facilities) and the macrosystems levels (healthcare policies) contributes to health disparities (Wesley, 2009). For instance, a study found that Black women are far less likely (60%) to be referred for cardiac cauterization (which is considered the most accurate procedure of diagnosing heart conditions) than White men; considerably less than the disparity found for Black men and White women (40%) to be referred for cardiac cauterization compared to White men (Canto,

Race contributes to racial differences in health identified multiple ways in which racism initiates and sustains health disparities. Stress, anxiety, and other health issues can affect a migrant person because they might feel overwhelmed to be in a new place. These are some of the basic factors, that can contribute to deteriorating health for many migrant people. These factors can be leading to use tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.  Different races do not have the proper health care, like the whites do and I believe that segregation has a big part and impact on those groups rather than whites because they live under a level of segregation that is higher than them.  As stated in Rethinking the Color Line by Charles A. Gallagher ”Studies

These findings suggest that factors such as patient and physician attitudes, as well as race concordance, play a role

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans a couple months ago the citizens of this country were bombarded with questions on race playing a responsibility of the survivors that were stranded for days to soon be plucked from their rooftops. These people who were living paycheck to paycheck did not have the same resources of the wealthy. They most likely had no insurance, no stable extended family that could lend them a house to stay or even a job to return to after the storm. The majority of New Orleans is African American and also in poverty and although it has been an uncomfortable subject to discuss it seems that if these people would have had the help to flee the city or been able to afford transportation to escape

The current events in the country, including the racial profiling of African Americans by police officers, have made race a delicate issue to speak about. Racial profiling is more commonly addressed in law and politics; however, it is also deeply rooted in today’s medicine. Physicians like Sally Satel, and researchers like Esteban Bruchard, encourage racial profiling by using race as an indicator for certain diseases and treatment. On the other hand, researcher Clarence Gravlee incorporates genetic ancestry and social aspects that can affect health outcomes, thereby demonstrating the importance of using other factors besides race. Racial profiling in medicine leads to race being used as a primary diagnostic tool, reinforces the idea that certain races inherit biological features, and it encourages a pharmaceutical market that targets specific races.