Essay Sample on Health Promotion on the African American Population

Introduction

Health promotion is the process that enables people to increase control over their health that results in health improvement. It is composed of several guiding principles and requires specific attributes that will ensure a patient gets the best care and medication under various circumstances. The need for different particular groups must be identified and considered. In most cases, health promotion is not equal due to lack of information about a specific group, limited resources and the creation of different programs that are not of any benefit to the group of concern. Hence the disadvantaged group continues to suffer due to limited resources. In the U.S. Minority health is a vital element of public health promotion (DiClemente & Wingood, 2019).

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Minority groups have continued to experience a disproportionate burden of death, disability and other preventable disease compared to the non-minorities group in the United States. Health disparities have been prevalent in diverse population within the U.S. than others. Hence these minority groups have a higher prevalence of acquiring diseases and other ailments. In the United States, the burden of illness and poor health and the advantages of good health and people's wellbeing is not distributed equally among the citizens.

Racism, Social Economic, Environmental hazards and Health Care Accessibility of African Americans

For the past decades, African American have made several strides in the American community. The African American is comprised of 13.4 % of the United States population. The unemployment rates of the blacks are estimated to be twice to that of the whites. Mortality rates are estimated to be 50% more than that of the whites. The life expectancy of this population is continually decreasing due to the poor living condition and the inability to access proper medical care (Olteanu, 2016). African Americans are mainly affected by chronic ailments such as cardiovascular disorders, cancer, diabetes, heart diseases and stroke. More than 90% of African Americans aged between 25 and 29 years have graduated from high school in the United States. (ACA) Affordable Care Act has benefited Americans in ensuring that most of the citizens have access to health care coverage, of the population 2.8 million African American have been able to access the cover. Even though the cover is meant for all the Americans, African Americans have a higher likelihood of being uninsured as compared to the White Americans.

Despite the benefits associated with the coverage, health care has remained a challenge on African Americans. It is estimated that regardless of the cover, African American women are likely to die due to pregnancy-related issues compared to the Whites, the infant mortality rates of the African Americans is twice that of the whites infants. Residential segregation has been one of the significant factors that have significantly contributed to a lack of health care facilities and health caregivers among the African American population. Other factors such as poverty, low-incomes, food insecurity and unaffordable houses have significant implications for health risk and the inability to access the health care insurance coverage. Racism has been one of the major causes of poor health outcomes among African Americans. For a long time, African American has suffered due to racism in American society. Racism has increased the rate of inflammation among the African American community, which has led to increased chronic illness in the population. Some of the chronic diseases that have been associated with racism include heart attack and metastatic cancer (Bell & LaVeist, 2018).

African Americans are associated with poverty which acts as a barrier towards economic openings and access to health care services. By 2018 the poverty rate among the African Americans was estimated to be 20.8 percent which was viewed to be higher than any minority group in the U.S. In the U.S. African American have a higher likelihood of working in low paying jobs compared to the whites. As per Hudson & Sewell (2019), the household income of African Americans is estimated to be $41361, which is significantly lower than that of the whites. The gap is contributed by unequal payment in similar jobs. It is important to note that income is an essential factor in health care accessibility. On average white Americans have approximately ten times wealth accumulation compared to African American families. It is estimated that by 2011, the white Americans had a wealth accumulation net worth of $91,405 compared to $6,446 of the Black Americans.

Mortality and Morbidity Risk Factors of African Americans

The primary causes of deaths among the African Americans include, heart diseases, cancer, diabetes and homicide. Heart diseases is the main source of deaths among black community. It is estimated that 46% of the Black Americans of 19 years and above suffer from cardiovascular diseases. High blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, lack of physical activities and increased cholesterol are the risk factors associated with heart disease and stroke. Cancer is the second most cause of deaths among the African Americans; it is estimated that by 2012, African American were significantly impacted by cancer with incidence rates of 554.5 per 100,000 and the death rate of 253.9 per 100,000.

Diabetes is another disease that primarily affects the African American community; some of the risk factors associated with the condition include, blindness, kidney failure, heart diseases and lower-extremity ailments. It is estimated that at least 4.9 million African Americans have diabetes. Social-economic and cultural factors are believed to have primarily contributed to the high prevalence of the disease. During the period of (1999-2002), the rate of African American males who died due to homicides was estimated to be ten times compared to the whites. By 2013, the death rates adjusted to 18.7 per 100,000 population. The figure was expected to be the highest compared to another ethnic group. The same case applied to Black American females. Basically, homicide may be defined as induced violence, some the high rates of violence among the African American was reported from child maltreatment, assault and fight in various learning institutions, rape and physical abuse by a lover or an intimate partner (Sharkey & Friedson, 2019).

Health Promotion Activities

Much indeed ought to be done to minimize health disparities and achieve maximum health equity that will promote and enhance good health to the African American population. This section discusses various promotion activities that ought to be put in place to minimize health disparities among the African American population. Health disparities often cause fear and havoc in a community, hence limiting patients from accessing proper medical resources and support from the health care society. Several things need to be considered concerning health promotion activities that will guide patients towards achieving good health.

The following prevention programs have been designed to help the population, namely, use of marketing strategies, Education and Community legitimacy. It is prudent that behavioral health changes ought to involve social marketing to effectively convey messages and programs to the group. In this regard, the messages and the programs must be tailored in a way to address issues of a specific group. Marketing perspective must also consider the social economic and cultural variation of the group. Community outreach needs to be employed; this will help in bridging the gap that exists between the health caregivers and the population of interest, in other words, community-based prevention programs will allow members of the community to understand and buy into the ideas and contents conveyed in the said programs (Vuillemin & Stranges, 2019). Proactive measures also need to be taken to ensure that most of the African American citizens if not all are insured with ACA. To assure health equality, African American must be given curative, rehabilitative and preventive care. Pregnant women must also be taken care of, while infants and adolescent must be given comprehensive care.

Conclusion

There exist a wide range of health disparities in American society. The African American population has been the primary victim of these disparities due to the factors mentioned above. Typically Black American is not present when various approaches and techniques are being designed concerning health status. Hence the planners have little knowledge of what is required for the black community. The black community is affected mainly by chronic diseases; therefore, it would be prudent for the United States Health department to consider the various Health promotional activities mentioned. This will reduce the morbidity and mortality rates of the black community.

References

Bell, C. N., Thorpe, R. J., & LaVeist, T. A. (2018). The role of social context in racial disparities in self-rated health. Journal of Urban Health, 95(1), 13-20.

DiClemente, R., Nowara, A., Shelton, R., & Wingood, G. (2019). Need for innovation in public health research. American journal of public health, 109(S2), S117-S120.

Hudson, D., Banks, A., Holland, D., & Sewell, W. (2019). Fundamental Links Between Racism, Socioeconomic Position, and Social Mobility. Men's Health Equity: A Handbook, 408.

Lion, A., Vuillemin, A., Thornton, J. S., Theisen, D., Stranges, S., & Ward, M. (2019). Physical activity promotion in primary care: a Utopian quest?. Health promotion international, 34(4), 877-886.

Moore, D. F., Kramer, E., Eltaraboulsi, R., & Steen, V. D. (2019). Increased morbidity and mortality of scleroderma in African Americans compared to non-African Americans. Arthritis care & research, 71(9), 1154-1163.Olteanu, A., Weber, I., & Gatica-Perez, D. (2016, March). Characterizing the demographics behind the# blacklivesmatter movement. In 2016 AAAI Spring Symposium Series.

Sharkey, P., & Friedson, M. (2019). The impact of the homicide decline on life expectancy of African American males. Demography, 56(2), 645-663.