Health Disparities

In today’s society, there are many different factors that can contribute to one’s overall health and well-being. Since there are so many different factors that can affect one’s health, there are inequalities that exist among people and this is knows as health disparity. "Health disparities are differences in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden of diseases and other adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups in the United States” (Nhlbi.nih.gov, 2015). Health disparities can be associated with factors such as: socioeconomic status, education, gender, race, ethnicity, age, mental health, and religion. There are certain health problems that can affect different groups more than others, such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS (Surgeongeneral.gov, 2015). One example of a specific population in the United States that is affected by health disparities is the African American Population. While African Americans are affected by various health disparities, one that affects this population more prominently is heart disease.

Many factors contribute to differing racial and ethnic health needs, including culture norms, religious mandates, and health disparities. The health disparities refers to specific differences in disease incidence, health outcomes, quality of health care and access to health care services that exist across racial and ethnic groups (Mandal, 2014). Disparities may result from inadequate access to care, poor quality of care, cultural issues and social determinants.

Health disparities endure tenacious issues in the United States of America, setting certain groups at higher risk of being uninsured, limited access to care, facing a poorer quality of care, and overall negative health outcomes. The high incidence of health disparities reflects the range of individual, social, economic, racial/ethnic and environmental magnitudes. Among the minority groups, African-Americans disproportionately access health care and the health disparities clearly glow in the nationwide.

Healthcare disparities within racial minority groups are an ongoing issue in the United States. Factors that affect these disparities are overall quality of care, access to healthcare, and access to insurance. Numerous efforts have been made to decrease the access and quality of care for minorities. The current intervention being used is the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This act was initiated by President Obama in 2010 and has had much controversy in the past years. The main arguments are the ACA increasing the taxes for Americans and the fact that all Americans must obtain insurance if proper funds are available. In 2014 the ACA Medicaid expanded and each state had the opportunity to expand if the state believed it appropriate. Out of the 50

Often the term “disparities” is related to a specific racial or ethnic group of people, many variations of disparities exist in America, mainly in regards to health. If any outcome from health disparities can be ascertained is populations and regions in America.

disparities are exclusive to certain groups of racial and ethnic populations in the nation. Health

Health disparities are present in our health care system. Whether it be racial, educational, or environmental, these disparities exist and are detrimental to health care outcomes. While there have been recent advancements in how to eliminate or reduce these disparities, there is still a major inequity in health care for all individuals.

The United States is faced with multiple health disparities within the country that encompass many challenges for individuals when it comes to the fairness and access to health care. A health disparity is defined as the inconsistency of treatment between two different groups of individuals. Treatment that could be different could be seen as different care due to age, race, ethnicity, culture, or current socioeconomic status (Koh et al., 2012). Treatment may be harmful for individuals as a result of miscommunication that may be perceived the wrong way. Individuals with low health literacy do not understand the purpose of particular drugs or the name of one’s condition, which can further leave an individual vulnerable to harm. Individuals may sign consent they do not fully understand, and will receive unwanted care and procedures (Clark, 2011). Healthcare providers need to be aware of an individual’s level of understanding before harming the individual with irreversible procedures.

Disparities in health and health care in the United States have been a longstanding challenge resulting in some groups receiving less and lower quality health care than others and experiencing poorer health outcomes. Hispanics, Blacks, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and low-income individuals are more likely to be uninsured relative to Whites and those with higher incomes. Low-income individuals and people of color also face increased barriers to accessing care, receive poorer quality care, and experience worse health outcomes. The Department of Health and Human Services Disparities Action Plan (HHS) sets out a series of priorities, strategies, actions, and goals to achieve a vision of a nation free of disparities in health and health care.

The difference in health outcomes and the determinants between parts of a population caused by social, demographic, environmental and geographic characteristics is defined as health disparities (Dore & Eisenhardt,2015). Societal, economic, and political forces impact social determinants. (Dore & Eisenhardt, 2015) have indicated that health inequities are avoidable and preventable when appropriate actions are taken to lower the risk of illness.

Governmental agencies influence health policies by influencing the Federal government, State government, and local laws by using population health research studies and interventions studies reported of health disparities. In addition to being well informed with health disparities they have access to investing, research and collecting evidence in assisting them to gather information that can influence health care polices. With each research that is conducted can possibly create new or old policies to be improved and aimed to reduce health disparities.

A proponderance of statistics derived from scholarly sources corroborates the notion that minorities who have a low socioeconomic position or have an significantly low income suffers many atrocious health disparities this includes obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases thus projecting a direct correlation between the two variables. In addition, minorities, specifically African-Americans that live in low income neighborhoods have less access to fresh, healthy and organic foods. In particular, supermarkets are sparse in their area and sometimes is not within walking distance or within the vicinity of their homes. On the flipside, these neighborhoods have the highest levels of fast-food restaurants and convenient stores. These barriers

“Nurses have a long and rich history of wanting to do the most good for the most people. Today, it is imperative that advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) continue that tradition by delivering care that improves the health of populations.” (Curley & Vitale, 2016). Along with other health care providers, APRNs individually share the responsibility of promoting more healthier lifestyles among his or her surrounding community. Over the course of the past several years, much needed attention has been focused towards population based health disparities and the impact thereof on our nation. In the pursuit of obtaining a healthier society, the U.S. government has designed and utilized a program presently titled HealthyPeople2020. This program

I agreed Health disparities could be preventable if we educate the community about the resources and programs available to them. The affordable Care act offers Preventive medicine care such as cancer screening test, nutritional education, immunizations and tobacco screening among others. Preventive care are programs focus in the prevention and detection of illness at an early stage, when the treatment has a better outcome, however, the best way to maintain and prevent illness is by making healthy lifestyle choices. CDC report that millions of children, adolescent and infants in United States do not receive preventive care which lack them from achieving their full potential as individuals, some of the preventive care that children should receive are regular’s physical checkups, vaccinations, screening for depression, blood pressure checked, hearing, Flu vaccine and HIV test among

The supplement of antioxidant including SOD has been shown to prevent diabetes mellitus [88]. SOD 3 is found in the various tissues like skeletal muscle, pancreas, and blood vessels, and it's the major extracellular enzyme that prevents superoxide radicals [89]. The higher level of SOD3 resulted in a 6-fold rises in the total SOD activity of the islets; so, superoxide radicals excrete to the extracellular space, therefore, it does not participate to the cell damage [90]. The elevated level of SOD is shown to decrease oxidative stress; reduce mitochondrial release of cytochrome C and apoptosis in neurons; and, in rats, prevent diabetes induced the damage of glomerular, so suggesting a primary role of SOD is regulation the apoptosis