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Disparity in Health Care Between Blacks and Whites in the US
Disparity in Health Care Between Blacks and Whites in the US
Effects of socioeconomic on healthcare of african american
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African Americans face many health issues, it is said that African American as a minority population has the highest rate of health issues. Also amongst many other groups we also suffer from high death rates. Many would ask “what causes these death rates?”. However, we as African Americans tend to suffer from chronic illness and condition, many of which are heart disease and cancer these common threats account for nearly 48 percent of all deaths amongst African American men. Also unintended injuries and strokes are recorded as third and fourth on the leading causes of death in African Americans. However, another common threat would be AIDS and homicides which accounts for more than 8 percent all of deaths among African American males. Furthermore,
"Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health." Public Health Reports. July/August 1998: 372 EBSCOhost. Available <http://www.epnet.com/ehost/login.html>. (11 February 1999)
Cohn, Jay N., The Use of Race and Ethnicity in Medicine: Lessons from the African-American Heart Failure Trial, J.L. Med. & Ethics, Race and Ethnicity, Fall 2006, p 552-554.
Though social problems affect a wide variety of people from all races, classes, and cultures; minorities, specifically African Americans, encounter social problems on a multi-dimensional basis. Poverty, employment rates, discrimination, and other social problems strike African Americans in such a way that it is nearly impossible to separate them; each individual has different background, socially and physically, that would determine in which order his or her social problems need to be solved. Impoverished blacks in the inner city may have difficulty finding or keeping jobs, while others may have jobs, but face troubles with work discrimination that prevent them from moving upward .Underemployment, workplace inequalities, and unbalanced medical attention are three closely related social problems that, if ameliorated together, could increase upward mobility, decrease poverty levels, and tighten the lifespan gaps for not only blacks, but also other minority groups. The purpose of this paper is to show what effects these three problems have for blacks.
Health Disparities and Racism is an ongoing problem that is reflected among society. Health is when an individual is physically, mentally and social well being is complete. However health disparities seems to be a social injustice within various ethnicities. Health disparities range from age, race, income, education and many other things. Even though we realize health disparities are more noticeable depending on the region of country where they live in. Racism is one of the most popular factors, for why it’s known that people struggle with health.
American Indians have had health disparities as result of unmet needs and historical traumatic experiences that have lasted over 500 hundred years.1(p99) Since first contact American Indians have been exposed to infectious disease and death2(p19), more importantly, a legacy of genocide, legislated forcible removal, reservation, termination, allotment, and assimilation3. This catastrophic history had led to generational historical traumas and contributes to the worst health in the United States.2 American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) represent 0.9 percent of the United States population4(p3) or 1.9 million AI/AN of 566 federally recognized tribes/nations.5 American Indians/Alaska Natives have significantly higher mortality rates of intentional and unintentional injuries, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease and chronic lower respiratory disease than other American.6
If we were to apply a longitude exposure study over the span of 42 years from the time an inner-city child is born, we may conclude that life experiences resulting from potential malnutrition, underprivileged environments, and overall lack of health education are the leading contributors to adult African American deaths. Studies show that 8 of the 10 leading causes in the deaths of African Americans are medical diseases, which with proper education and care may have been prevented and/or addressed earlier in their lives to diagnose and treat. Heart Disease is the leading cause of death for African Americans. When compared to other ethnicities, some form of heart disease causes 24.5% of African American deaths. These numbers are astounding considering Blacks make up approximately only 14.2% of the total U.S. population.
For many African-Americans, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study has affected their daily life when it comes to health care. With the amount of sadness that surrounds the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, it is hard to believe that so many are unaware it existed. Problems such as broken medical ethics, severely affected health of African Americans, and a change in the way African Americans view medicine arose because of this
"African American Communities and Mental Health." Mental Health America. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2014. .
Medical research in the United States has a disgraceful history of exploitative studies in which African Americans were targets of abuse in the name of medical and scientific progress. African Americans have been used as the testing ground for drugs, treatments, and procedures since the time of slavery. The tolerance of the human frame and the endurance of the soul have been pushed to the limit in many of these experiments. From the physical demands on plantation work and the torturous treatment of slavery to the mental anguish inflicted on a slave’s soul by their masters, blacks have received deplorable treatment sanctioned by a white society. The end of slavery and the ushering in of the twenty first century did not end the torturous treatment and mental abuse. African Americans have been used for medical experimentation without consent for decades. Ironically they are treated as inferior and often given fewer rights than others, but amazingly their cells and bodies are treated as equals in laboratories for medical research, the results of which can save, extend and enhance the lives of others. Although color lines that are drawn in many aspects of life and inequitable treatment doled out based on the depth of the color of one’s skin, actually astounding results from medical experimentation on African Americans has produced drugs, cures and treatments for even those who do not value people of color, leaving the question of ethics and equity hanging in the balance.
For African Americans, there is a major relationship between unemployment and poor health, around one-third of their population is poor and that can cause illness due to a poor diet and bad living conditions. They also have most cost involved if healthcare is needed because they are less likely to have insurance coverage. Distrust in the healthcare system is another problem, because they believe that the care is inadequate or harmful. Also, having racism within healthcare systems can be very detrimental to the African Americans care. Babies in African American families are twice as likely to die than babies in white families. They have problems within their culture with cancer, sickle cell anemia and hypertension. For cancer, they have a 27% higher rate than whites do and for hypertension they are one-third more likely than whites to have it due genetics, poor diet and stress. Sickle cell anemia is worse for anyone with African American descent, one in twelve have the gene and around one in six-hundred actually develop the disease. This disease means that the blood cells will become elongated and pointed which will clog vessels, reducing oxygen flow, and could even cause organ
The article on Black America Web entitled “The state of Black America, Part 4: Health as Wealth” (Lewis, 17 Jan. 05) is mainly addressing how African Americans should get check-ups, eat a healthier diet, exercise, among other things to maintain their health. The authors main point of writing an article about health is so that African Americans will be propelled to take preventative measures to prevent and treat disease that may be debilitating or lethal, to get professional help if they are not feeling mentally prepared, and to put aside mistrust of the medical profession.
According to the American Cancer Society, the third leading cause of cancer related deaths for African American men and women is colorectal cancer (CRC). African Americans have a higher CRC mortality rate than White men and women due to lack of preventative testing, increased cancer fatalism attitudes, decreased knowledge of the cancer, and late onset diagnosing. To research how to resolve this issue the “Fayetteville Area Inter-Faith Commitment to Colorectal Health and Cancer Reduction in African Americans,” or “The F.A.I.T.H Project” was created to execute a culturally targeted faith/community-based educational intervention about CRC within the African American community.
Lower levels of educational attainment and poverty are significantly linked to poor health outcomes as observed amongst the Somali Americans (Williams & Jackson, 2009). Additionally, the disparities are more evident since the other non-minority population groups with higher socioeconomic status have significantly improved their health status.
People at risk for developing hypertension are overwhelmingly African-Americans. Nearly 50% of African-Americans will be diagnosed with hypertension. The American Heart Association reports that in 2009, 18.5 people out of 100,000 died from hypertension. Of these deaths, the majority were African-American (AHA, 2013, p. 2). These statistics make hypertension treatment a priority for this population.
In From Slavery to Freedom (2007), it was said that “the transition from slavery to freedom represents one of the major themes in the history of African Diaspora in the Americas” (para. 1). African American history plays an important role in American history not only because the Civil Rights Movement, but because of the strength and courage of Afro-Americans struggling to live a good life in America. Afro-Americans have been present in this country since the early 1600’s, and have been making history since. We as Americans have studied American history all throughout school, and took one Month out of the year to studied African American history. Of course we learn some things about the important people and events in African American history, but some of the most important things remain untold which will take more than a month to learn about.