Health Disparities

Sources define the term health disparities as differences between different communities and their health care, as well as the health differences that are linked to disadvantages in communities including age, gender, racial or ethnic group, and geographic locations. Health disparities are directly related to the distribution of social, political, economic, and environmental resources. The CDC explains multiple factors health disparities are caused by including poverty, environmental threats, inadequate access to health care, individual and behavioral factors, and educational inequalities (William, 2011). Inequities in education have a key relationship with health disparities. Adolescents associated with social and health problems tend to drop out of school.

A social factor is something that impacts a lifestyle, such as family, wealth, or religion. Health is a vital factor in one 's life. Health is important because it is the condition of being free from illness or injury. According to Understanding Social Problems, " health problems are linked to lifestyle behaviors such as excessive alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking, unprotected sexual intercourse, physical inactivity, and unhealthy diet" (Mooney, 40). Health has many social factors, but there are three main ones that are really important.

Health disparities refer to the differences of the health status, injury and disease prevention, and optimal health opportunity achieving, which are experienced by different groups of people (CDC., 2008). These groups of people can be defined by such factors (determinants) as the gender, ethnicity and race, social and community networks, living and working conditions (education, income, unemployment, work environment, housing), and socioeconomic position (Hernandez & Blazer, 2006). Evans and Stoddart had proposed a model of health determinants that provides a conceptual framework which consider the factors that influence that individuals’ health in a community. Unlike the other models which concern only about the absence of the disease, this

I strive to enhance the quality of human life through sound investigation and precise medical judgment. I hope to prolong life by simply understanding the mechanism of human disease, validating prevention and identifying the most effective treatment of disease. Research contributes an imperative component in for improvement of patient care, treatment, and prevention of health disparities and because of this I intend to incorporate practice and research. I am currently a senior student studying biology following the pre-medical track at Malone University. Preceding medical school, I intend to obtain additional research experience through biomedical research specifically regarding health disparities research.

Disparities in health care have been an ongoing issue for more than two decades. Evidence suggests that disparities in women and minority population continue to be problematic, with little progress being made to eliminate them. Ethnic and disparities exist for several different reasons. However, several national organizations have made efforts to reduce health disparities, including the Institute of Medicine, (IOM), and the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) as well as Healthy People 20/20.

The health status of African American men constitute a complex story of historical oppression, social forces of discrimination at political, institutional, and individual levels, and economic disadvantages that have worked against the health of black men for centuries. Many African American men continue to suffer disproportionately from poor physical and mental health, and are also feared and marginalized in American society. It is clear that the health disparities among African American men are astounding when compared to other racial, ethnic male groups, especially white males. The awakening to the existence of health disparities has brought concern about African American males ' health issues in the US. Though many other indicators of quality

Health disparity is a common phrase used in the medical world. The term refers to the relationship between individual health and one's race and ethnicity. We are aware that race and ethnic background plays a role into in health status, health outcomes and life expectancy (). An example of this is how African Americans has higher prevalence of hypertension than other populations and tend to develop hypertension at an earlier age (). Research shows that this is due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors that are manipulated by an individual’s race ().

Health disparity are avertible health status of distinctive group of people like races, skin color, language, socioeconomic resources, gender and age (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014). Health disparities are arbitrary and explicit to historical and present uneven distribution of political, economic, social, and environmental resources. A disparity can also be related to education, where dropping out of school occurs associated with various social and health problems (CDC,2017). Comprehensively, person with inadequate education are more likely to struggle number of health risks such as substance abuse, obesity, and traumatic injuries, compared to individual who receive more education. One of the main findings within health disparities in history

The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, work, their age, live, raised, and the systems put in place to handle illness. These environments are in turn molded by a broader set of forces: politics, social policies and economic. A simple belief of public health is that everyone is obligated to health and the conditions that allow for health. However, health is not alike or fairly distributed.

One of the issues that the United States is currently facing is health inequality and disparity among minority groups. Health disparity focuses at the differences in health status between different social groups, gender, race, ethnicity, education, and income. Unfortunately, health disparities are affecting minority groups in society. These groups include African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians/Alaska Natives. For people in these racial/ethnic minority populations, health disparities can mean lower life expectancy, and loss of economic opportunities.