Health Disparities Among the Hispanic Community Essay

Health disparities are often experienced by minority communities within a society. Members of the marginalized community often face certain barriers which make it difficult to access quality healthcare As a result of the disparity in healthcare services, members of the marginalized community struggle with poor health (Xin, 2016). Among the communities which deal with health disparities are members of the Black and the Hispanic community in the United States. Disparities experienced by these two communities can be shown through certain measures such as health care service quality, the availability of health insurance, and healthcare infrastructure available to them. Despite these disparities, The Black and Hispanic community enjoy better health and relatively longer lives compared to other communities who have access to better healthcare. What are the factors that contribute to health disparities among the black and Hispanic communities and what programs can be put in place to eliminate the barriers caused by health disparities?

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Health care disparities for both Hispanic and black populations can mean a lower quality of life, loss of economic opportunities, pre-marital deaths and rising cases of injustice. From a diverse perspective, health care disparity for black and Hispanic populations can lead to minimal productivity, social inequities and increased health costs. Most of the limitations to quality health care include minority and racial status, no insurance coverage and levels of poverty. Some of the acute and chronic diseases like cancer become a burden to most families under the bracket of being either African American or Hispanic. Hispanic communities are faced with socioeconomic problems that expose them to a high probability of having heart diseases. In most Hispanic families, most people stand a lower chance o not graduate from high school as compared to other ethnic groups like the whites. Also, compared to the whites, Hispanic populations are less likely to have health insurance coverage compared to whites which are also the same case for African Americans.

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) in 2017 cancer was the leading killer disease for African Americans (Siegel, Miller& Jemal, 2017). These findings are pivotal basics that cancer among other diseases continues to affect the black population widely and this is triggered to some factors like lack of awareness about the importance of cancer screening, system, and institutional barriers and poor preventive health care services. Also, according to the NCI (National Cancer Institute), the mortality rate caused by cancer and other related illnesses among the Hispanic populations were approximately 42 percent. Drawing facts from these findings, it is undeniable that both Hispanic and black populations are less privileged when it comes to receiving quality health care. The main idea behind the scope of the paper is to evaluate keenly in the main factors that lead to these outcomes in health.

On a larger scale, the black and Hispanic community suffers from the burden of disease, premature deaths and a high number of immune weak people. Different conditions tend to emerge in the community in relationship to poor health services in relation disparities that are present in the healthcare systems. Some of the leading causes of deaths in both Hispanic and Black communities are directly related to health disparities (Betancourt et al., 2016). The mortality rates, the morbidity rates, and the health risk factors tend to increase often due to the inaccessibility to quality and advanced healthcare to these groups. As a result, the elimination of disparities requires appropriate community support, public health initiatives and easy access to quality healthcare. Most of the individuals who come from both Hispanic and black tend to face challenges when finding the right medical attention which leads to the concept of ethnicity discrimination.

Health disparities are often caused by certain factors. One of the factors include determinants of health. These determinants are often social and may include educational levels, occupations, genetic predisposing factors such as cardiovascular disease being rampant among Latinos, and the availability of accessible healthcare services. Certain environmental conditions and genes make certain medical conditions prevalent among members of the African American community. Limited health information could also lead to health disparities. Health disparities among Latinos and Blacks can be addressed by focusing on the factors that contribute to it. Viable approaches involve making health services not only available but also accessible to members of the Hispanic and black community. Training members of the Black and Hispanic community to become qualified healthcare professional does not only provide the community with employment opportunities but also with individuals within their community capable of educating society on health and providing reliable healthcare services. These professionals may also incorporate cultural competence programs to ensure that their treatment approaches are suited for the black and Hispanic community (Levine et al, 2016).Organizations which could prove helpful include the state department of health for policy formulation, local government health institutions and also educational institutions for training, education and awareness campaigns.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the scope of this research is to identify the main effects of health disparities among Black and Hispanic populations. The aim is also to identify the main factors that contribute to health disparities most of them being lifestyle behaviors, socioeconomic factors social conditions, and difficult to access quality health care services. The factors that contribute to health disparities affect the number of medical professional among the black and Hispanic communities..

References

Xin H. (2016) Editorial: Health Disparities-An Important Public Health Policy Concern - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00099/full

Betancourt, J. R., Green, A. R., Carrillo, J. E., & Owusu Ananeh-Firempong, I. I. (2016). Defining cultural competence: a practical framework for addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care. Public health reports.

Levine, R. S., Foster, J. E., Fullilove, R. E., Fullilove, M. T., Briggs, N. C., Hull, P. C., ... & Hennekens, C. H. (2016). Black-white inequalities in mortality and life expectancy, 1933-1999: implications for healthy people 2010. Public health reports.

Bartolome, R. (2015). Population Care Management and Team-Based Approach to Reduce Racial Disparities among African Americans/Blacks with Hypertension. The Permanente Journal. doi:10.7812/tpp/15-052

Kominski, G. F. (2014). Changing the U.S. health care system: Key issues in health services policy and management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Siegel, R. L., Miller, K. D., & Jemal, A. (2017). Cancer statistics, 2017. CA: a cancer journal for clinicians, 67(1), 7-30.