African Americans’ Health Status
July 2nd is Due Date.
Select an ethnic minority group that is represented in the United States (American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian American, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander). Using health information available from Healthy People, the CDC, and other relevant government websites, analyze the health status for this group.
In a paper of 1,000-1,250 words, compare and contrast the health status of your selected minority group to the national average. Include the following:
Describe the ethnic minority group selected. Describe the current health status of this group. How do race and ethnicity influence health for this group?
What are the health disparities that exist for this group? What are the nutritional challenges for this group?
Discuss the barriers to health for this group resulting from culture, socioeconomics, education, and sociopolitical factors.
What health promotion activities are often practiced by this group?
Describe at least one approach using the three levels of health promotion prevention (primary, secondary, and tertiary) that is likely to be the most effective in a care plan given the unique needs of the minority group you have selected. Provide an explanation of why it might be the most effective choice.
What cultural beliefs or practices must be considered when creating a care plan? What cultural theory or model would be best to support culturally competent health promotion for this population? Why?
Cite at least three peer-reviewed or scholarly sources to complete this assignment. Sources should be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and public health content.
Health Promotion in Minority Populations
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Health Promotion in Minority Populations
The United States has multiple ethnic minority groups, including American Indians/Alaskan Natives, Asian Americans, Black/African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. According to Hostetter and Klein (2018), ethnic and racial minority groups experience healthcare racial disparities, including disregard for exposure to preventive health services. Unlike the dominant white race, they endure low-quality care, poor healthcare access, and affordability, among other factors (Mahajan et al., 2021). The focus is on African Americans’ health status as depicted by reputable organizations such as WHO, CDC, and Healthy People.
African Americans experience healthcare disparities that are attributed to increased death rates or lower life expectancy when compared to the average white person. According to Radley et al. (2021), blacks were more likely to succumb to manageable health conditions, citing the poor healthcare access, unaffordability, and low-quality care they were often exposed to. Social determinants of health, including poverty, food insecurity, wealth and income inequality, and inadequate access to safe and affordable care, among other factors, exuberated the health inequality between the African American population and the dominant white race. The population is one of the adversely disadvantaged groups economically, which implies that key health factors, including health insurance coverage, are challenging. Health People 2030 adds that low-income populations, in this case, African Americans, barely have access to healthy foods, which increases the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular infections, including heart disease, which ultimately invites lower life expectancy (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2023). In other words, the current health status of this group is relatively poor compared to the dominant white race.
Despite the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, black Americans still constitute a significant population of uninsured Americans. This is worsened by the fact that most of the coverage alternatives can be unaffordable to the population, owing to their economic disadvantage and subsequent prevalence in low-income neighborhoods. Even though ACA and subsequent policies, including the American Rescue Plan, increased the percentage of insured African Americans, the group still has a relatively higher uninsured population, which limits access to care (ASPE, 2022). The CDC (2021) ties the health disparities/inequalities to racism, including structural and interpersonal, which can impede the physical and psychological health and well-being of the population. As a country with a history of racism, communities of color have been adversely affected, and the impacts worsen because of the social and economic disparities since, unlike whites, for example, African Americans register relatively low wealth, income, employment opportunities, and are prone to poor housing neighborhoods and the built environment.
The above social and economic factors increase exposure to mental illness, chronic conditions, and mortality rates among blacks. Carratala and Maxwell (2020) write that they were more likely to report serious mental issues and were less likely to receive prescription medication when compared to non-Hispanic whites. Apart from mental health, most black Americans barely met the recommended dietary allowances, which can also be tied to economic disadvantage, impeding their ability to afford a healthy diet. This arguably justifies the increased prevalence of chronic conditions such as obesity, hypertension, and heart diseases among Black Americans. The CDC (2017) and CDC (2023) indicate that black American adults will disregard the need to see a physician citing cost, which implies that the risk and diagnosis for chronic conditions are barely addressed in time, hence the increased mortality, in comparison to non-Hispanic whites.
The race experiences barriers that impede access and utilization of healthcare services. Culture, socioeconomic status, education and literacy levels, and sociopolitical factors are barriers to health for this group. As indicated above, social and economic conditions are at the center of health disparity affecting African Americans. Notably, higher poverty rates and low-income neighborhood or built environments are some of the sociopolitical factors that worsened health inequalities (Connell et al., 2019). Structural and interpersonal racism often increased inequalities in education, and subsequent income and wealth accumulation, which further affected the affordability of health insurance and inadequate knowledge. In other words, low educational attainment, which was common among African Americans, often resulted in poor healt...