...Healthcare disparities This article entitled; Racial and ethnic disparities in health care, updated 2010, written by American College of Physicians, presents the reality of the racial and ethnic disparities in health care and made some recommendations to reduce this gaps. Although improvements have been seen in health care quality and some disparities have been reduced or eliminated, differences persist in health care quality among members of various racial and ethnic minority groups. Irrefutable evidence indicates that racial and ethnic minorities are subject to quality care less healthy than white Americans, even when factors such as insurance status are controlled. Since the population continues to grow and diversify the health care system must change and adapt to meet the needs of a patient more and more multicultural. In 2003, the American College of Physicians, which is now the greatest medical specialty society in the United States with physicians and medical student members, published racial and ethnic disparities paper Healthcare (www. acponline.org / ppvl / policies / e000904.pdf). The document provides some recommendations on how the gap between patients’s racial and ethnic minorities and their white counterparts can be reduced. Unfortunately, even though progress has been achieved in some areas the question of the racial and ethnic disparities remains a difficult and complex problem to tackle. This update of the 2003 document adopts recommendations that still...
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...Health disparities among racial and ethnic groups present a complex national issue. ….Health disparities are the differences in frequency, commonly occurring, raising the death rate, diseases that are difficult to bear, and other adverse health conditions or outcome that exists among specific population groups in the United States. …The specific population groups can be based on gender, age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geography, sexual orientation, disability, or special health care needs. Health disparities occur among groups who have persistently experienced historic trauma, social disadvantage, or discrimination. They are widespread in the United States as demonstrated by the fact that many minority groups in the United States have a higher incidence of chronic diseases, higher mortality, and poorer health outcomes when compared to whites.” ( Multicultural Health. n.d., p.14) …The causes of health disparities are due to both voluntary and involuntary factors. Voluntary factors are related to health behaviors, such as smoking and diet, and can be avoided. …Factors such as genetics, living and working in unhealthy conditions, limited or no access to health care, language barriers, limited financial resources, and low health literacy skills are often viewed as being involuntary and unfair, because they are not within that person’s control.”(Multicultural Health., n.d., p.19) From the research reported by the institute of medicine an overwhelming body of evidence in the...
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...Health Care Disparities: Central of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defined heal disparities as “the differences in health outcomes and their causes among group of people.” These differences are closely linked with some racial and ethnic minorities, such as social, economic, and/or environmental (CDC, 2011). Health disparities are the metrics used to measure the health equity, where health equity represents providing qualified health care services for different groups of populations regardless there race, ethnicity, sex, sexual identity, age, disability, socioeconomic status, and geographic location (Georges, Benjamin, 2015). In the U.S. health care disparities is one of the longstanding health challenges with severe influences not only...
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...the approaches, disparities still exist as one of the major concerns in health and health care today. We made a little progress comparing to the years before in addressing this issue. In addition, the Affordable Care Act offer opportunities to tackle this issue vigorously. I firmly believe that it will be a much bigger issue if we do not eliminate the disparities now it will be very challenging when the US population becomes much more diverse. However, this policy memo addresses this particular issue, summarizes the causes or issues known about health and health care disparities, and provides recommendations and approaches to confront it. Causes Healthcare disparities are references to the differences that exist...
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...By definition, A public Health Disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease,injury,violence,or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantage population.Health disparities are inequitable, and directly related to the historical, and current unequal distribution of social,political,economic,and environmental resources. Health disparities result from multiple factors,including,Poverty.Environmental threads.Inadequate access to health care.Individual and Behavioral factors.Education inequalities Black Women have Higher Death rate from breast cancer than other women..Nearly 40,000 women die every year from breast cancer.Black women are %40 more likely to die from Brest cancer than white women. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths,among women in the US.The reason for this fact is because of the fewer economical and social resources,genetic,and lack of information,in compare to the aggressiveness of the cancer.The federal Government and the health facilities should play a big rule by implementing the affordable care act, and to educate the women about the preventive benefit and coverage provided by the law, including coverage of mammograms with out co-pay,beginning in 2014.Increase the programs that raise up the knowledge and the awareness among these women such as ,The early detection programs,and the follow up care. The local health agencies,the medical field personnel,Doctors and Nurses,have the...
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...thus live a much healthier and productive life. Katterl (2011) indicated the environments in which people are exposed to impact health, health-promoting or negating behaviors that people engage and utilization of health care services are some ways in which socioeconomics states is often related to health. People are living longer and financially we are in a bind as a nation.The aging population is a vulnerable community due to high susceptibility to plaguing life conditions such as morbidity and mortality; Studies on the aged have established that older women are even more universally exposed to socioeconomic vulnerabilities which...
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...MPH 5220 U02D1 Barriers to Reducing Disparities in Health Care July 17, 2013 The purpose of this post is to disseminate the learners view regarding the barriers to reducing disparities in health care. The National Library of Medicine defines Healthcare disparities as a “differences in access to or availability of facilities and services,” and “Health status disparities refer to the variation in rates of disease occurrence and disabilities between socioeconomic and/or geographically defined population groups” (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2013). A barrier to reducing disparities based on race and ethnicity is to increase education related to those chronic diseases that most affect communities of color. Community Outreach and Public Engagement/Cultural Competencies are used within the public sector; however, the effectiveness of these programs must be questioned. Rebecca Voelker (2008) states, “Not only did treatment disparities persist; the magnitude of the disparities did not diminish” (Voelker, 2008), the ineffectiveness of health care programs persist and perpetuates the cycle of health care disparity and health status disparity. Voelker references the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH 2010) a pilot program in South Carolina and Georgia, which are examples of effective outreach to communities of colors, these programs were managed effectively and precisely, thus they were able to reduce the disparity gaps per disease (Voelker, 2008). Voelker’s...
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...Health disparities are defined as unequal burdens in disease morbidity and mortality rates which are often experienced by the minority racial/ethnic groups. In today’s population ethnic and racial disparities exist for various and intricate reasons, which has grave impacts on an individual’s access to health care. These disparities have been around for several centuries and continue to be problematic despite the little progression being made with the revisions of preexisting health care laws. Laws and regulations are continually being revised to allow further health insurance expansions in hopes to reduce the ethnic and racial disparities for access to adequate care. Even with the increase in awareness, policymakers and clinicians have...
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...Healthcare disparities continues to be an issue, despite the progress and improvement in healthcare. Racial disparities, primarily associated with certain population is overwhelmingly caused by lack of health insurance coverage, assess to care and the quality of care received. Social determinant also plays a major role in healthcare outcomes for individuals. In the more affluent areas of communities across the country the life expectancy increases tremendously. In the poor and low income areas, individuals are plagued with health issues and lack of the basic resources for survival. Why is this? It comes down wealth and access to resources. More resources and opportunity are in areas where there is wealth. With the implementation of the affordable care act provisions have been made to help mitigate some of the challenges seen regarding access to care. For example, Maryland has pocket of community in low income areas that do not have access to healthcare. I know this trend occurs across the country. The question is what to do to...
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...United States has a health care system that reflects the values, beliefs and cultural norms of its society. The ideals of capitalism, free enterprise and the desire to be involved in cutting edge medicine and technology are all inherent characteristics that have been critical in the development of the current health care system. These foundational characteristics, however, have also created a health care crisis resulting in increased cost for health care, inequities in access to health care and a fragmented infrastructure. One of the major problems with the United States health care system is cost. The United States spent over 3 trillion dollars on health care in 2014 (Martin, Hartman, Benson, Catlin, & National Health Expenditure Accounts...
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...Mental Health Care Disparities: Consequences of Ineffectiveness and Lack of Access for Minorities Ebony Marinnie RN Rowan University Mental Health Care Disparities: Consequences of ineffectiveness and lack of access for minorities For ages mental illness has been seen as the ultimate curse. The mentally ill were seen as possessed, hidden from society, and never talked about. In America, it is estimated that 26.2 percent of people ages 18 and older suffer from a diagnosed mental disorder in a given year (Kessler,Chiu, Walters, & Demler, 2005). The aforementioned statistics reflect those that have sought or been forced into treatment. There are many left uncounted due to lack of access and ineffective treatment secondary to a number of reasons. Considering history, discrimination, personal perception, socioeconomic status, educational backgrounds and a host of other reasons many minority groups are reluctant to seek out treatment in what many may consider a system of mental health created and sustained primarily for the middle and upper-class White America. In fact, 60 percent of people with mental illnesses do not receive treatment (Kessler et al., 2005). The purpose of this paper is to discuss mental health care disparities in minority populations within American society, and to suggest some needed changes to close the gap in America. One quarter of all Americans meet the criteria for having a mental illness and a quarter of those have a disorder that significantly...
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...Health disparities of the LGBT community Darlene Poer Grand Canyon University Minerva Gonzales May 15, 2016 Health disparities of the LGBT community Many factors contribute to a person’s health status. Among them are, limited access to care, socioeconomic, and environmental factors. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “the social determinants of health as well as race are ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, age, and disability” (Myers, Yoon, & Kaufman, 2013). The Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community falls into this category. The individuals that belong to this group come from all ethnicities, races, economic and social statuses throughout the United States and the world. The Institute of Medicines report in 2011 states, “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals have unique health experiences, but as a nation, we do not know exactly what these experiences and needs are ("LGBT health report," 2011, p. 4).For this reason their needs and health care inequities and inequalities should be addressed. The health promotion goal of the LGBT community is to “improve the health, safety, and well-being of lesbian, gay, and transgender individuals” ("," 2014). To understand the current health status of the LGBT community, one must understand some basic definitions. 1. Gender identity-A person’s basic sense of being male or female. 2. Gender expression- Manifestations that are defined as masculine or feminine. 3. Gender role...
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...Racial Disparity in U.S. Diagnoses of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, 2000 –2009 Qian An, MS, Joseph Prejean, PhD, H. Irene Hall, PhD This activity is available for CME credit. See page A3 for information. Background: Increased attention has been focused on health disparities among racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. Purpose: To assess the extent of progress toward meeting the targets of Healthy People 2010 objectives and eliminating disparities. Methods: All diagnoses of AIDS during 2000 –2009 among people aged Ն13 years in the 50 states and District of Columbia, reported to national HIV surveillance through June 2010, together with census population data were used in this analysis (conducted in March 2011). This study assesses the trend in racial/ethnic disparities in rates of AIDS diagnoses both between particular groups using rate difference (RD) and rate ratio (RR) and across the entire range of racial/ethnic subgroups using three summary measures of disparity: between-group variance (BGV); Theil index (TI); and mean log deviation (MLD). Results: The overall racial/ethnic disparity, black–white disparity, and Hispanic–white disparity in rates of AIDS diagnoses decreased for those aged 25– 64 years from 2000 to 2009. The black–white and Hispanic–white disparity in rates of AIDS diagnoses also decreased among men aged Ն65 years; however, the black–white disparity increased among young men aged 13–24 years (BGV: pϽ0.001, black–white RD: pϽ0.01) from...
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...This proposal provides the general architecture and set of strategies to consider for the first of two phases for rolling out the National Plan for Action to achieve health equity. This memo reflects what staff at the Office of Minority Health believe would help the federal government effectively release the National Plan for Action (“the Plan”) and draw sufficient attention to it from the key audiences and partners it seeks to mobilize and engage. The launch, now set for late September, is an initial step in a coordinated, strategic process over the course of 12 months to release this long-awaited roadmap, and to energize public and private stakeholders who ultimately will need to implement it. Through this initial launch in Washington D.C., OMH hopes to achieve the following goals: • Raise awareness about the Plan, particularly among key groups (OMH’s diverse partners) that have played a role in developing and championing it over the past two years; • Spur a wide distribution of the report among broad national stakeholder audiences, to mobilize interest and action; and • Generate excitement among the community of organizations and advocates that work on disparities-related issues about the significance of the federal government issuing the first comprehensive roadmap for achieving health equity in the United States. General Structure The launch date is still tentative but OMH is shooting for release either on September 20 or September 27, 2010. The...
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...SES Indicators There are 126 racial and ethnic categories in the US (Winker, 2004). It is a well-recognized fact that many racial and ethnic minorities face unique health challenges and suffer from poorer health outcomes (Dorsey, 2011). The importance of adequately reporting and collecting relevant SES parameters, including race and ethnicity is evident. However, the question of how to properly categorize, measure, and report some of these parameters has been in the center of discussion for some time. In accordance with the Affordable Care Act, The department of Health and Human Services (HHS) came up with the new data standards for the collection of race, ethnicity, sex, primary language, and disability status. It is required by law that these standards be used in all the national population health surveys (Dorsey, 2011). The new standards have been in use since November 2011, and their stated purpose is to “understand the causes of health disparities, design effective responses, and evaluate progress in decreasing health disparities” (Dorsey, 2011). With the deepening social disparities and the effect they have on the nation’s health, it is essential to have a well-established system of documentation. It is also important for the researchers to select and appropriately measure all the indicators relevant for their study. HHS’s new data standards include fourteen racial and five ethnic categories, with the option to include more than one category within each group. When...
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