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Health Promotion Among African Americans

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Health Promotion among African Americans
Diversity in the nursing profession with caring for patients and their cultures is a very demanding concept for nurses when it involves providing health promotion and sickness prevention based on knowledge. This can be a daily challenge that must be faced with expertise to care for the various style of cultures and beliefs within communities. This paper will focus on African Americans and how this diverse population is recognized in health care

Health Status of African Americans
The population of African Americans in the United States is approximately 40.8 million (http://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/index.html, 2015). African Americans leading reason of death is cardiac disease, cancer, and strokes. The largest death rate is from cardiac disease and stroke compared to other minorities and populations along with the largest percentage of high blood pressure among adults aged 65 and older is 40% of this group. Secondly, obesity among women of African American nature is 58% compared with Mexican American people and the white population. Ultimately, obesity with both male and female adults is common in this minority with 38% of African Americans being prone to this condition. Diabetes is twice as large among this minority then white adults. The HIV infection rate is highest for African Americans compared to other racial minorities. Blacks have the largest death rates from homicide among all other populations. Lastly, the infant mortality rate was highest with 13% of births ending in death. Cultural Barriers Cultural barriers are very evident for the African American people. Adults ages 18-64 that do not have health insurance is 18% compared to other ethnic

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