REFLECTION ESSAY COMPARING TWO ARTICLES
Amid the numerous cases of discrimination in various social settings, studies have been conducted on the issue of racism and health. Today, racism has been identified as one of the determinants of health disparities. The articles were chosen for this reflection deal with the issue by utilizing various techniques. Thus, this essay will focus on comparing the two articles and evaluating the methods used by the author to communicate with the reader.
In the first article, (Paradies, 2006) focuses on evaluating the association between self-reported racism and behaviours related to cancer. On the other hand, (Shariff-Marco et al. 2010) examines the relationship between self-reported racism and ill health among the minority groups in the community. Therefore, the two authors hold the position that self-related racism increases the chances of negative health outcomes particularly in people from minority groups in the society.
In the first article, by (Paradies, 2006 para 5) among the keywords used include multicultural, which is used to refer to the characteristic of the current society particularly in the United States where different races meet. In this case, the primary purpose of the keyword is to show the importance of understanding racism because the social setting is made of individuals from different ethnicities and races. The keyword in the second article by (Shariff-Marco et al. 2010 para 1) is phenotypical, which means certain observable characteristics. This keyword is used to describe how racism is constructed from visible characteristics like skin colour.
The relationship between the two articles is that they all focus on addressing the relationship between self-reported racism and health outcomes. Also, the methods used for the study are closely the same. The key differences in the classifications of the content are the inclusion of additional information aimed at providing a clear perspective on the topic. In the first article, the author categorizes the article into various segments including introduction, methods, results and conclusion. The second article uses an introduction, methods used for the study, the definition of the term racism, the results as well as the conclusion.
The first article by (Paradies, has an advantage because it offers a short summary of all the parts at the beginning of the article. By doing so, the author is able to grant the reader a perspective of the main topics to be addressed within the body of the article. In the second article, the authors provide the reader with additional information including the outlining of key messages at the end of the article as well as a proper definition of the topic of racism.
The first study uses cross-sectional data obtained from the 2003 California Health Interview Survey. In this case, the questions involved are related to self-reported racism and health care. On the other hand, the data analyzed in the article was obtained by conducting a search of PubMed, PsychINFO, and Sociological Abstracts databases using various terms including racial discrimination, perceived discrimination and racism (Shariff-Marco et al. 2010 para 4). The two articles follow a systematic procedure that involves outlining the issue of racism and health-related behaviours in the introduction, providing insight on the techniques for data collection and analysis, results as well as a conclusion to provide the readers with the final evaluation.
Reference
Paradies, Y., 2006. A systematic review of empirical research on self-reported racism and health. International journal of epidemiology, 35(4), pp.888-901.
Shariff-Marco, S., Klassen, A.C. and Bowie, J.V., 2010. Racial/ethnic differences in self-reported racism and its association with cancer-related health behaviours. American Journal of Public Health, 100(2), pp.364-374.