The Health of Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders

The arrival of missionaries on the Hawaiian Islands definitely made an impact on Hawaiian society and ways of life. When the missionaries arrived on the islands of Hawaii it was an interesting transition period of Hawaiian history, the ancient Kapu system was abolished and there was an excellent opportunity for the people to be converted into Christianity. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions made their voyage to Hawai’i on October 23rd, 1819. This group contained 17 missionaries with the goal to teach about God’s word and the Christian religion, converting Hawaiian into western civilization, and to teach natives how to write Hawaiian (something that has not been done before by other foreigners). Their journey took 6 months

The biggest thing I've noted, not only about the Hmong, but also concerning other ethnicities and cultures is that there is a lack of substantial research focused on specific health concerns, and treatment on seemingly anyone that isn't a straight white male. Many factors can of course contribute to this for instance in the Hmong's case, and in the Lee's case, the clash between cultures and health practices can often make it hard for research to be done if an illness is only found and treated by Western medicine as a last stop and only once it has progressed.I was surprised to learn in the article "Health Issues for the Hmong Population in the US" that the "Hmong populations present signs and symptoms of cancer at an earlier age than the general

The Native American culture is the original culture of the United States. Members of Native American tribes live throughout the country. “There are an estimated 4.9 million persons, in 565 federally recognized tribes who are classified as American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AI), alone or in combination with one or more other designated racial classifications. This demographic group compromises 1.6% of the U.S. population” (Horowitz, 2012). Wisconsin is home to the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Ojibwa (Chippewa), and the Potawatomi tribes (“American”, 2014). It is important for nurses within this state, as well as any other state, to understand the Native American belief system in order to provide a quality healthcare experience. Nurses are the primary point of contact in the healthcare setting. Client advocacy is one of the nurse’s major roles. Therefore, the nurse should have the highest level of diversity understanding for the cultures within the local region.

Medicine, to the modern day world, is a way of healing the sick and helping people experience life to their full potential. It is an ingredient of a culture that allows the culture to survive through decades and centuries at a time. But what if the medicine that we know as helpful is actually harmful? When a child cuts their knee the first thing an adult would do is check the scrape and then assess the damage. After assessing the damage, the adult would normally plan a course of treatment to ensure the child would not lose a limb in the near future. After treating the child with a mixture of antibacterial wipes, bandages and ice cream, what if the child is not better, but actually worse? That is what happens when you compare the medical practices of the Hmong to the medical practices of the Americans, both cultures believe that the others will cause more damage than good in respect to healing the soul and body.

This comprehensive assessment identifies how health disparities are intertwined with the socioeconomic condition the Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Peoples (NHPP) live in. Factors such as education, wages, affordable housing, and access to health care have a profound effect to on the lives of NHPP. Among these factors, low educational achievement results in lower wages that affect the individual's (of family's) access to housing, healthcare, and a better lifestyle. Effects of low educational attainment are further supported by a study completed by the Virginia Commonwealth University Center on Society and Health (2011) wherein it states, "People with fewer years of education have worse health than those with more education - even when

Hispanic Americans are considered the leading ethnic minority in the United States of America composing 17.4% or 55.4 million of the national population with calculations proposing an increase to 28.6% or 119 million by 2060 (Velasco-Mondragon, Jimenez, Palladino-Davis, Davis, & Escamilla-Cejudo, 2016). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2015), Hispanic Americans primarily suffer from chronic diseases processes that primarily stem from obesity and uncontrolled high blood pressure that can lead to heart disease and cancer that as a result affect other organs. A study by Kim-Godwin & McMurry

Native Americans have the highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Native Americans are 60% more likely to be obese and are over twice as likely to have diabetes than the general population. These numbers are even higher for Southwest Native Americans. But their diet is very similar to the rest of modern society. So why do Native Americans suffer these conditions at higher rates than the general population? The answer may be found in new research that is beginning to point to a genetic cause for these conditions. In a study by Peggy Halpern, Ph.D. for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, she found that historically Native Americans of the

Healthcare is an ever changing entity with an ever changing population of clients. In current day 2016, the United Sates has become a melting pot of many different cultural backgrounds, which has led to changes within the system to accommodate the patient base. Unfortunately, not all changes have been able to effectively reach any and all persons from every background. We still see language and cultural barriers that have direct correlation to the inability to seek healthcare and or the ability to change cultural perspectives to ensure healthy lifestyles. Within this paper, the health of American Indian and Alaskan Native populations will be discussed along with the barriers to care and the

Hawaii has always been a beautiful flourishing place, but since the first arrival of outsiders, the local flora and fauna have been greatly affected. Hawaii is located in one of the most secluded parts of the world, being thousands of miles from the closest land mass. For an excessive amount of time Hawaii lived in isolation. The arrival of Captain Cook in the 18th century impacted Hawaii instantly. Like any arrival of westerners to an isolated place, the westerners transmitted diseases that the indigenous had no immunization to. Like the Native Americans at the arrival of the Spanish, Hawaiians were dying quick. With the introduction of new diseases the westerners also brought ideas. Since Hawaii was now known to the world missionaries came to enforce those new ideas and a new religion. The missionaries did nothing but confuse the indigenous people even more. Missionaries sought to make the Hawaiians identical to them, or similar. They forced acculturated the population and assimilated their culture. The descendants of the first missionaries later aided in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. They also helped introduce the idea and practice of land “owning” to the indigenous. The introduction of such process led to a 4:1 ratio of land owned by whites to land owned by indigenous.

The societal factors that may have contributed to the health of Native Americans today are the discrimination, isolation, and poor quality of life that they experienced not only in the past but still experience today. Although we might not hear about the discrimination or poor living conditions Native Americans experience in the news, it doesn't mean that it doesn’t exist. Native Americans experience discrimination everyday where even something as simple as getting or maintaining a job can be difficult. Employers seem to only want to hire White/Caucasian applicants and only hire Native Americans when they're the only option. In today’s poor economy where it’s hard in general to get a job, it seems Native Americans have one more thing stacked

Since the arrival of Columbus in 1492, American Indians have been in a continuous struggle with diseases. It may not be small pox anymore, but illnesses are still haunting the native population. According to statistics, Native Americans have much higher rates of disease than the overall population. This includes a higher death rate from alcoholism, tuberculosis, and diabetes than any other racial or ethnic group. Recent studies by Indian health experts show that diabetes among Indian youth ages 15-19 has increased 54% since 1996 and 40% of Indian children are overweight. Even though diabetes rates vary considerably among the Native American population, deaths caused from diabetes are 230 percent greater

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.

Responding to the high risk of hypertension among the Hispanics requires certain changes in lifestyle to keep them safe. The lifestyle changes have been confirmed to reduce the chances of developing complications related to hypertension but Hispanics are faced with a number of hurdles which makes it hard for them to fully utilize these changes. Some of the major reasons making it hard for Hispanics to adopt lifestyle changes are; lack of suitable transport services to enable them access health care, language barriers when communicating with others and lack of the required health insurance coverage. Due to these factors, early diagnosis of the condition is not possible in this population and most of them will end up suffering the later consequences which are in most cases severe ("Hispanics and Heart Disease, Stroke", 2016).

Polynesia is geographically categorized as the triangular area between Easter Island, New Zealand and Hawaii. Some of the main island groups that are included in within the triangle are Tonga, the Cook Islands, Samoa, Niue, Tokelau, Tuvalu and French Polynesia. While these are islands are separated geographically by the Pacific Ocean, culturally they are known to have many similarities and can be considered united rather than divided by the ocean (Capstick, Norris, Sopoaga, & Tobata, 2009). When it comes to health challenges each of these islands are vulnerable to the same issues, as a result they make a joint effort to tackle these issues.

The aim of these reports is to identify and assess the significant effects of self-reported racial discrimination and deprivation on health inequalities between Maori (indigenous peoples) and non-Maori. The methods used were from data collected from the 2002-2003 New Zealand Health Survey (Harris, Tobias, Jefferies, Waldegrave, Karlsen & Nazroo, 2006) and 2006-2007 New Zealand Health Survey, based on cancer screening and other negative experience within the health care sector (Harris, Cormack, Tobias, Yeh, Talamaiao, Minster &Timutimu, 2012). The data was to assess the occurrence of reported experiences of racial discrimination in the health care sectors between Maori and non-Maori. Statistics show that New Zealand’s main ethnic group consist of approximately (80%) being of European ethnicity, (15%) Maori, (7%) Pacific Islanders and (7%) Asian (Harris, et al., 2006). Participants were asked to respond to five primary questions about unfair treatment by a health professional, direct or indirect verbal and physical attacks, unfair treatment when purchasing or renting a property and treatment at work. It was important to identify the differences of treatment and the inequality of health care received by different ethnicities. The results of discrimination found that Maori were more likely to experience some sort of racial discrimination in three or more of the settings than non-Maori (Harris, et al,. 2006). Racial has the conception of a superior race but discrimination can