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Effects of socioeconomic on healthcare of african american
Effects of socioeconomic on healthcare of african american
Hypertension among african americans in coatesville
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African Americans have a higher prevalence of hypertension compared to White Americans causing a health disparity among these two racial groups. Not only do they have a higher rate but also suffer from an earlier onset, greater severity and more complications compared to White Americans. (HEALS) A health disparity is the difference in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, morbidity and other adverse health conditions that exist between specific groups. (from book) Health disparities are responsible for the imbalance of health conditions in the United States. According to PubMed Health, hypertension is when blood flows through the vessels with greater force than is normal. (PubMed Health) This leads to straining of the heart muscles, increasing the risk for hypertension related health issues. Hypertension doesn’t present its self with signs and symptoms that would alert someone to a health problem. Hypertension is a serious medical condition because it presents its self as asymptomatic, many people don’t know they have it until more serious health issues arise, such as …show more content…
It is a collaborative effort between community advisory board (CAB), community based participatory research (CBPR) and the African American community. HEALS trains church leaders into community health workers to education their congregations about the importance of hypertension management, the serious consequences of leaving it untreated and the high prevalence it has among African Americans. (HEALS) It’s proven that people feel more comfortable receiving advice from a familiar, well liked, well respected, and trustworthy person, such as a church leader. They’ll have more of an influence with their congregation than a stranger would. Many people including African Americans shy away from going to the doctors due to a lack of trust in the providers, a lack of health literacy, or a feeling of not being
The elimination of disparities in mental health care among ethnic, racial and underprivileged populations, specifically minorities remains a challenge amongst mental health care workers and medical professionals. Many minority areas are more impoverished, rely on government assistance and have a higher incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, chronic diseases, and injuries compare to any other ethnicity. In recent studies there are strategies to help eliminate disparities in mental health care, such as improving health care access, quality, offering diverse mental health workforce, providers, and patient education. These are just several strategies that can help assist in disparities. The goal is to reduce or eliminate racial, ethnic and socioeconomic health inequalities that affect minorities.
As early as the 1800s clinicians began to take a closer look at elevated blood pressure levels, they soon found high correlation between hypertension, stroke, and other heart diseases. They also established that high levels of blood pressure effected both privilege and underprivileged, and within the years they have noted the disease have become more prevalent in the African American culture. Long term studies, such as randomized controlled trial studies, unveiled
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.
Healthy People 2020 defines health disparities as a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage (“Healthy People 2020,” n.d.). Health Disparities that are associated with diabetes include many different minority populations. These populations that are affected more severely by diabetes and do not receive diabetes research, treatment or education. Racial and ethnic minority populations have a higher risk of diabetic complications such as lower limb amputations and kidney failure.
Health disparity is one of the burdens that contributes to our healthcare system in providing equal healthcare to everyone regarding of race, age, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status to achieve good health. Research reveals that racial and ethnic minorities are likely to receive lower quality of healthcare services than white Americans.
Studies have analyzed how African Americans deal with an enormous amount of disease, injury, death, and disability compared to other ethnic group, and whites, Utilization of health services by African Americans is less frequent than other ethnic groups in the country. This non utilization of services contributes to health disparities amongst African Americans in the United States. Current and past studies have shown that because of discrimination, medical mistrust, racial/ethnic background, and poor communication African Americans tend to not seek medical care unless they are in dire need or forced to seek professional care. African Americans would rather self –medicate than to trust a doctor who might show some type of discriminatory
In recent discussions of health care disparities, a controversial issue has been whether racism is the cause of health care disparities or not. On one hand, some argue that racism is a serious problem in the health care system. From this perspective, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) states that there is a big gap between the health care quality received by minorities, and the quality of health care received by non-minorities, and the reason is due to racism. On the other hand, however, others argue that health care disparities are not due to racism. In the words of Sally Satel, one of this view’s main proponents, “White and black patients, on average don’t even visit the same population of physicians” (Satel 1), hence this reduces the chances of racism being the cause of health care disparities. According to this view, racism is not a serious problem in the health care system. In sum, then, the issue is whether racism is a major cause of health care disparities as the Institute of Medicine argues or racism is not really an issue in the health care system as suggested by Sally Satel.
African Americans are more than double Caucasians with rate of first stroke. Stroke deaths are also twice as likely for African Americans that Caucasians resulting with a death rate also double. Some of these stroke disparities are due to the higher incidence of obesity, diabetes and smoking amongst African Americans (4).
Healthcare disparities are when there are inequalities or differences of the conditions of health and the quality of care that is received among specific groups of people such as African Americans, Caucasians, Asians, or Hispanics. Not only does it occur between racial and ethnic groups, health disparities can happen between males and females as well. Minorities have the worst healthcare outcomes, higher death rates, and are more prone to terminal diseases. For African American men and women, some of the most common health disparities are diabetes, cancer, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and HIV infections. Some factors that can contribute to disparities are healthcare access, transportation, specialist referrals, and non-effective communication with patients. There is also much racism that still occurs today, which can be another reason African Americans may be mistreated with their healthcare. “Although both black and white patients tended not to endorse the existence of racism in the medical system, African Americans patients were more likely to perceive racism” (Laveist, Nickerson, Bowie, 2000). Over the years, the health care system has made improvements but some Americans, such as African Americans, are still being treating unequally when wanting the same care they desire as everyone else.
African Americans face a multidimensional health care crisis that affects the young or old, rich or poor. Too many African Americans are uninsured or underinsured. The elderly cannot afford long-term health care leaving the family to care for them. Health care cost is constantly rising and are out of control, reform is the only way out.
The purpose of this essay is to firstly give an overview of the existence of inequalities of health related to ethnicity, by providing some evidence that ethnic inequality in health is a reality in the society and include definitions of keywords. Secondly, I will bring forward arguments for and against on the major sociological explanations (racial discrimination, arefact, access to and quality of care) for the existence of health inequalities related to ethnicity. Thirdly, I would also like to take the knowledge learnt for this topic and brief outline how this may help me in future nursing practice.
Today’s society protects against discrimination through laws, which have been passed to protect minorities. The persons in a minority can be defined as “a group having little power or representation relative to other groups within a society” (The Free Dictionary). It is not ethical for any person to discriminate based on race or ethnicity in a medical situation, whether it takes place in the private settings of someone’s home or in a public hospital. Racial discrimination, in a medical setting, is not ethical on the grounds of legal statues, moral teachings, and social standings.
There are many studies and suggestions on why the disparity between African Americans and Caucasian Americans exist in the United States jail system. According to the Council on Crime and Delinquency (March 13, 2012), 28% of African Americans will go to prison compared to 4% Caucasian Americans. So what is causing this disparity? Many agree that
Despite the substantial developments in diagnostic and treatment processes, there is convincing evidence that ethnic and racial minorities normally access and receive low quality services compared to the majority communities (Lum, 2011). As such, minority groups have higher mortality and morbidity rates arising from both preventable and treatable diseases judged against the majority groups. Elimination of both racial and ethnic disparities is mainly politically sensitive, but plays an important role in the equitable access of services, including the health care ones without discrimination. In addition, accountability, accessibility, and availability of equitable health care services are crucial for the continually growing
The weak, the poor, and the less fortunate in the society have been defending their race against health discrimination struggles for many years, but in reality, what really are health discriminations and what causes these ideas to be existing in our communities and society? Discrimination is a social behavior where people are intimidated by others who are in power (Paradies, 2006), and therefore it is anti-social. The racial groups which resulted to discrimination as we know were definitely created before the development of viable scientific explanations about genetics, and have therefore not represented any biological distinctiveness.