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African American Health Barriers

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In recent times, the subject of health disparities has attracted a lot of attention through the media report in both local and national level.in this essay, the health condition of African American will be discussed in this in the following areas as their health status, barriers to health, diverse population and disparities, and health promotion approach to improving this situation.
Health Status: According to the 2014 National Health Interview Survey, 13.5% of all African Americans have less than average health (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014a). Averagely, the African-American have higher prevalence of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension compared to the national ratio. Further study reveals that 48 …show more content…

There are four major barriers identified from the above status of the African American population and these are related to socio-economic status of this minority group as most of find healthcare extremely too expensive to obtain. Some of African American are immigrants with various language barriers and has difficulties in understanding the health care need or are scared to talk about their conditions with healthcare providers. Due cultural differences, lifestyles and beliefs acquired from their fore fathers, and are not willing to change from the old way of living to adopt a new healthy ones and lastly, health care workers also discriminate against African American patients and as such that most of them refuse to seek treatment for the ailment because experiences encounter in the past (American Nurses Association, …show more content…

This is so because there is a saying that “prevention is better than cure”. Primary prevention is the method of curbing the outbreak of diseases or injuries before they actually occur. This can be achieved by preventing exposure to hazardous diseases or injuries. This could also increase resistance to injuries or sickness even as one is exposed to it and staying away from unsafe and unhealthy conditions as these will help in keeping the African American community safe and free from getting sick and as such keep the little income they make in their pocket and not have to use for paying high healthcare cost. Reduce disabilities and not be faced with discriminatory violation the exist in the healthcare certain or the society as a whole (The Institute for Work & Health,

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