How Race and Ethnicity Influence Health for African Americans
Introduction
The United States healthcare system contains disparities that have uneven effects on minority groups such as African Americans. These disparities result in gaps in health insurance, unfair healthcare access, and poor health results among specific people. For a long time, the African American community had to bear with the healthcare challenges mentioned above. Among the US population, African Americans consist of 13.4% of the population (Quick Facts, 2019). Since the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, African American society has made noteworthy achievements. For instance, educational attainment has increased dramatically, with about 90% of African Americans between the age of 25 and 29 years graduating from high school (Jones, Schmitt & Wilson, 2018). The rates of college graduation have also increased among African Americans. Income gains have also improved. However, compared to white Americans, African Americans are still paid little amounts for similar jobs, which have made them lag in accumulative wealth. Also, African Americans have a longer life span, and most of them have health insurance coverage. However, they still have high rates of diseases and lower life expectancy than other indigenous groups. This paper will examine African Americans’ health status by discussing their health disparities, barriers to health, health promotion activities, and effective approaches in a care plan.
How Race and Ethnicity Influence Health for African Americans
For many years, African Americans have suffered from racism in American society. Over time, studies have shown that racial discrimination affects not only social stratification but also the mental and physical health of African Americans (University of Southern California, 2019). This is a burden that African Americans cannot escape and has caused premature deaths, chronic diseases, and mental illnesses at high rates compared to whites. Racism leads to barriers to economic opportunities and discriminatory healthcare access. The healthcare system has also shown bias and racism toward African Americans. This has been acknowledged with examples, including disparities in management and treatment of pain among African Americans, the use of African Americans bodies in medicinal experiments, and tribal discrimination in health procedures in health-related decisions and assessing the costs of healthcare (Hoffman, Trawalter, Axt & Oliver, 2016). It is because of such actions that the African American community has distrust towards the US healthcare system.
Health Disparities and Nutritional Challenges among African Americans
Poverty is one of the significant health disparities among African Americans. African Americans are poor than whites since most of them rely on part-time jobs, unlike whites, who have full-time jobs. Most part-time jobs that African Americans get are low-paying jobs that do not have vital reimbursements, such as health insurance coverage. Household income inequality is another factor that affects African American’s ability to access healthcare. Compared to White American Households, most African American households have low household income. This is because African Americans are paid a smaller amount of salary or wages for similar jobs as those of whites, resulting in unequal pay, which is a factor that contributes to the vast gap in household income. A nutrition challenge experienced by African Americans is food insecurity. Food insecurity is an issue that affects a large number of African Americans and has significant impacts on the health outcomes and their welfare. Food insecurity befalls when a family does not have any access to sufficient nutritious food (Gundersen & Ziliak, 2015). This is always as a result of inadequate finances to buy healthy food. Compared to white Americans, African Americans experience malnutrition twice the rate.
Health Barriers resulting from Culture, Socioeconomic, Education, and Sociopolitical Factors
Health disparities are mainly seen among people from low socioeconomic status, such as African Americans. Illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer are a burden to most African Americans (Guy-Walls & Long, 2017). Studies show that most African Americans are more likely to bypass surgery and avoid invasive medical procedures due to fear of acting against their religious and cultural beliefs (Guy-Walls & Long, 2017). Language barriers, personal experiences, beliefs in alternative medicine, the meaning of pain suffering, and the role of extended family in decision-making are some of the health barriers resulting from cultural factors. Socioeconomic factors include income, education, employment, and safety. Most African Americans are subjected to low-paying jobs, whereby they earn low income that is insufficient for their basic needs. As a result, most of them do not afford to pay for health insurance coverage, which allows them to have easy access to health care. Most African American parents do not have adequate funds to enroll their children in good schools; hence most of them do not gain any education due to lack of funds. These factors affect their ability to make good health choices, access healthcare services, and affordable housing.
Health Promotion activities often practiced by African Americans
Health promotion activities regularly practiced by African Americans include public health education programs in community sites familiar to this group. These community sites include churches, hospitals, parks, and schools. Many African American individuals are offered education on the risks of chronic diseases and preventative health (Oliffe, Rossnagel, Bottorff, Chambers, Caperchione & Rice, 2019). Another health promotion activity is that African American healthcare providers and educators use the latest research and information to encourage them to have a positive implication on health promotion among African Americans. By understanding the socio-cultural backgrounds of African Americans, healthcare providers offer effective, culturally sensitive patient care.
Approach using the Levels of Health Promotion Prevention
The most effective health promotion method among African Americans is education at the primary level and adequate conveyance of the right information in secondary and tertiary levels.
Primary Prevention
Education is essential when trying to spread information among a large population. In African American culture, most people feel safe and comfortable when using resources within their community. Education can be done in community sites such as churches, schools, and local clinics. To reach minority populations such as African Americans, spreading preventive information requires programs and messages that are made and targeted to reach them. While doing this, it is crucial to consider the varying ages of the population and varying languages among this population. Health educators can achieve this by educating African Americans on the importance of eating a balanced diet. By doing this, most African Americans will be informed of the available resources, which will help prevent the onset of diseases in the future.
Secondary Prevention
Secondary prevention involves the early diagnosis and treatment of illnesses to prevent more serious illnesses from developing. Through education, health educators can educate African Americans on the skills they need to detect illnesses early so that they can seek medical attention. Health educators can educate African Americans on the importance of visiting hospitals when they have any symptoms of illnesses to get treatment before a disease becomes severe.
Tertiary Prevention
Tertiary prevention involves prevention measures that aim at rehabilitation due to a severe illness. Health educators can educate African Americans on the importance of taking medication correctly and the importance of re-education, retraining, and rehabilitation when healing from a particular illness.
Cultural Beliefs or Practices that must be considered when creating a Care Plan
When creating a care plan, some of the cultural practices that should be considered include language barriers, personal experiences, beliefs in alternative medicine, pain suffering, the meaning of death, and extended family role in decision-making. By asking about cultural preferences and beliefs, healthcare providers will understand the personal needs of African American patients and decrease stereotyping.
The cultural theory that would best support culturally competent health promotion is the Leininger Sunrise Model. This model is used by nurses when making cultural assessments to patients (McFarland & Wehbe-Alamah, 2019). This model links its concepts with clinical practices while providing a systematic strategy for recognizing values, beliefs, and practices. This model involves various aspects of culture, including religious, social, educational, political, legal, philosophical, and technological dimensions (McFarland & Wehbe-Alamah, 2019). Along with the social environment and language, these factors affect the delivery of patient care in healthcare systems. Healthcare practitioners consider the cultural and spiritual needs to facilitate the attainment of anticipated clinical outcomes. Therefore, this model is best because it allows healthcare providers to avoid patient stereotyping.
Conclusion
African Americans can make noteworthy gains is health reforms are done correctly. Despite the much progress made in the past years, most African Americans are continuously struggling to live healthy and economically stable lives. This is because of the never-ending impacts of racial discrimination, affecting all African Americans, despite their socioeconomic status. These impacts can be overturned, but it will need genuine systemic change and commitment. Undoubtedly, it is essential to enhance cultural sensitivity levels among health practitioners, identify negative cultural and socioeconomic barriers as a pre-existing issue, and boost the African American community. Executing these actions will close the gap of cultural ad socioeconomic barriers that lead to healthcare discrimination among African Americans and other minority groups.