African Americans: Health Status and Challenges - Essay Sample

Introduction

African Americans are an ethnic group in America that has a total or partial ancestral origin from the black racial groups of Africa. The term means the descendants of enslaved black people in the United States. The group has a health status that is characterized by a higher prevalence of obesity, hypertension, sexually transmitted diseases, cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases (Amadi, 2017). The main objective of this paper is to discuss the African Americans, their current health status, and their ethnicity influences their health. The article also analyzes the health disparities that exist for the group, the nutritional challenges they face, their barriers to health that are connected to culture, socioeconomics, education, and sociopolitical factors and the health promotion activities that are practiced by the group. Before the summary, the article examines one approach that is effective in a care plan and the cultural beliefs that must be considered when creating a care plan.

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The ethnic group chosen for review is African Americans. It is a skin group-based classification that is used in describing people with a dark-brown complexion. The term is generally used in classifying people who are perceived to be more dark-skinned than other people. The group is mainly of Sub-Saharan African descent, and the indigenous peoples of the Indian subcontinent, Oceania and Southeast Asia. In general, most African Americans live longer with a decline in the death rate of 25 percent for people who are 65 years and above. Despite such improvements, Amadi (2017) observed that younger African Americans are living or dying of conditions that affect older white Americans. The health status of the group is marked with higher cases of diabetes, obesity, cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, and cardiovascular diseases (Amadi, 2017). Race and ethnicity influence the health of African Americans since it is well documented that they are a factor in health disparities. Racism in the context of African Americans in the USA is a systemic, organized social and cultural phenomenon which, by discrimination, exclusion, and prejudice, causes health disparities.

The African-American population experiences massive health disparities with chronic conditions, mental health, access to care, and preventive screening as compared to white people. Obesity and childhood obesity are some of the health issues affecting African Americans. According to Sanford, Scales, Hamido, & DeBerry (2017), 48 percent of African American adults are obese, and high rates of obesity are registered among the young ones. Diabetes is another chronic disease affecting African Americans. As observed by Sanford et al. (2017), 80 percent of African Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, and they are 2.4 times more likely to begin treatment of end-stage renal disease. They are also 1.7 times more likely to be hospitalized and 20 percent more likely to develop visual impairments. The group is also affected by heart diseases, with 30 percent of men and 60 percent of women being more likely to develop high blood pressure (Sanford et al., 2017). The group is also less likely to keep their blood pressure under control, and the men have twice the risk of experiencing the first-time stroke. The children from this group are 1.8 times more likely to suffer from asthma and 3.5 times as likely to dies as infants due to birth weight complications. The group has a 2.2 times higher infant mortality rate. Concerning mental health, 20 percent of African Americans are more likely to report psychological distress, and 50 percent of them are less likely to receive counseling or mental health treatment (Sanford et al., 2017). African Americans have poor eating habits and do not exercise, and this increases their risk of developing obesity, cancer, heart diseases, and diabetes.

The health disparities that exist among African Americans are often linked to genetics, limited access to health care, low literacy, delayed treatments, and individual factors of environment, health literacy rates, cultural beliefs, and lack of economic resources. These factors can broadly be classified into social and economic conditions that are highly prevalent among African Americans than the whites. For instance, an African American has a higher chance of failing to see a doctor because of the treatment cost. Different cultural, socioeconomic, educational, and political factors hinder African Americans from receiving quality healthcare. According to Sanford et al. (2017), the barriers that affect the quality of patient-provider relationships among African Americans are race discordance, perceived discrimination, poor communication, and medical mistrust. Race discordance is one of the impediments affecting health distribution in the USA. The blacks believe that fewer health resources are distributed to them by the government as compared to the whites. Sanford et al. (2017) also observed that educational opportunities and higher incomes are the keys to the vast health gap that exists between most white and black Americans. Socioeconomic factors such as wealth and education are most influential in creating the differences in health behaviors between the two groups as compared to other factors. Lack of health awareness and providers' cultural and linguistic differences are also the reason for the wide gap in health services offered to black and whites. The government should grant all Americans equal opportunities in their quest for medical services.

African Americans have adopted different health promotion activities in response to the health inequalities that they experience. One of the strategies that have been implemented by the group is the use of faith-based organizations (FBOs) such as churches to offer structured health promotion activities such as education on health, screening, and health fairs. These churches strive to attend to the spiritual, physical, and mental needs of their members. The church leaders have also led the charge by serving as agents of health-related change. The FBOs have developed evidence-based interventions on a wide range of issues such as heart diseases, cancer, flu vaccines, obesity, HIV/AIDS, and smoking cessation. Most of these interventions have proven to be effective in reducing the health gap between blacks and whites.

The most effective approach to dissolving the health disparity issue between blacks and whites is to formulate a proper mechanism of mass education about the importance of health among African Americans. This approach will apply the three levels of health prevention in the following sense. In terms of primary prevention, the strategy will entail education on how health services are integral in the lives of blacks. With this knowledge at their disposal, they would be able to embrace necessary actions that would predispose them to health hazards. The approach would inculcate secondary prevention by advising the public to go for screening for various diseases so that they could be treated in advance. Tertiary prevention would be applied in the approach by identifying blacks who are culturally hindered from seeking medical attention and educating them on the importance of good health and how it can be achieved medical services. It would be the most effective choice of bridging the health gap since it would enlighten the public about the essence of seeking medical attention and the need for taking precautionary measures.

Varying cultural beliefs or practices are integral to the creation of a care plan. Some of these factors are the language barrier, distrust of health care services, personal experiences, religious differences, fear of the unknown, and belief in alternative medicine. The most compelling cultural theory for supporting the culturally competent health promotion is the Leininger's Culture Care theory since it offers culturally congruent nursing care via cognitively based supportive and facilitative acts that are tailor-made to fit specific groups such as the African Americans concerning health disparities (Nam, 2018).

References

Amadi, C. (2017). Money as Health: A Study of Health Status Disparities among African Americans of Flint, Michigan. Journal of Psychology & Clinical Psychiatry, 8(2). DOI:10.15406/jpcpy.2017.08.00484

Nam, M. S. (2018). Leininger's Culture Care Theory: A Naturalistic Reinterpretation. Journal Of pan-Korean Philosophical Society, 91, 257-283. DOI:10.17745/pkps.2018.12.91.257

Sanford, E. K., Scales, J., Hamido, E., & DeBerry, W. (2017). Health Disparities Among African Americans. European Scientific Journal. DOI:10.19044/esj.2017.c1p2