Health Disparities Problem Space Activity
Please post your findings from using the Problem Space website here. (Some questions you may want to address: What articles did you read? What did you think about those readings? What data tools did you use? Why did you choose them? What did you find out about your topic of interest? What future directions for research would you explore?)
posted by Health Disparities Education Core @ 7:03 AM
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10 Comments:
I read three articles concerning health disparities in general. Below is a basic synopsis of each article and the discoveries I made in relation to my topic.
The first article I chose was posted online on June 13th, 2006 by the CDC, Office of Minority Health, entitled, “Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.” To begin, it stated that the incentive to reducing disparities is to consider the fact that the “groups currently experiencing poorer health status are expected to grow as a proportion of the total US population, which will impact the future of America.” In other words, today’s minorities will become a part of tomorrow’s majority, and the health conditions affecting them today might carry over to be a burden onto tomorrow’s future. The article discussed Healthy People 2010’s role in reducing health disparities and its attempt to lighten the burden of disease, disability, and premature death. Additionally, it stated six focus areas including the following: infant mortality, cancer screening and management, CVD, diabetes, HIV infections/AIDS, and immunizations. The following four diseases were also thought to disproportionately affect minorities: mental health, hepatitis, syphilis, and TB. According to this briefing, African-Americans and American Indians seemed to suffer the most from the above conditions.
The second article was a scholarly piece written by David R. Williams entitled, “Patterns and Causes of Disparities in Health;” it seemed to be written in the last 2-3 years which obviously implies its relevance to the current data trends. The article emphasized that the major factors in determining health were race, socioeconomic status (SES), and gender. In addition, unemployment, harsh/laborious working conditions, high stress, low availability of resources, differential access to medical care (which might feed lower utilization of care even if aid is available), and at times even discrimination based on negative racial stereotypes (whether or not they were made consciously) also affected the minorities, men in particular compared to women. This report also confirmed that Black and Native Americans are on the lower end of the scale as compared to the White population or even other minorities, especially due to their SES, lower education levels, and thus health challenges. However, it was interesting to find that almost always immigrant populations tend to do better in bringing up their SES level and so lowering the health disparities at a faster rate. The article also stated that research shows, interventions made at the community level require a coordinated and comprehensive approach with the active involvement of professionals and volunteers and the use of multiple channels of executing the intervention. Finally the report proposed four ways to reduce social inequalities including improving medical care, targeting the most vulnerable, ensuring long-term and realistic goals, and involving national and regional cooperation. However it stated that healthy people 2010 has adopted the latter two. Nonetheless, the final word was stated as the simple fact that healthcare must overcome barriers to reduce “disparities which are pervasive across health status measures, persistent over time, and costly to society.”
The final article I read was the 2005 National Healthcare Disparities Report (just the highlights) published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. By using hard/computed data to present the facts, the report’s main focus was to relate the following points: disparities still exist, they are diminishing, improvements still need to be made, and information about disparities is improving. All the presented graphs indicated that SES affected people more than race alone. Even so, it was illustrated that Black people now have the same access to healthcare as Whites, and all the disparities experienced are now significantly smaller. In light of all the above articles and other research I read, this is very hard to believe. All in all, the data seems to be disproportioned in its finding, indicating some error in the presenting/computing of the facts. But then, I might need to read the entire report to get a better grasp of the concepts behind the highlights.
As I read these articles I found some basic information about health disparities: whom they mostly affect, why they occur, how they can be reduced, and who is currently working towards that goal. My research has shown the big picture of the problem, and perhaps I would like to pursue this quest to discover how disparities, especially in SES and race might affect a rural population.
-SP
Upon reading numerous articles from "Problem Space" I never suspected that women of differing racial ethnicities would differ in so many regards involving healthcare. Through my reading, I have learned that African American, Hispanic, Asian, and White/Caucasion women differ drastically in the healthcare they receive.
White/Caucasion women have the lowest rate of unintentional pregnancies, maternal morality, and poverty in general compared to any other group of women.
African American women have the shortest life expectancy, are less likely to receive prenatal care, and have the highest rate of poverty. Along with these mentioned issues, African American woman also have the highest rates of unintentional pregnancies, and infant and maternal morality.
Hispanic women are the most likely group of women to die from cervical cancer. This group of women do not regularly get screened for this cancer. In general, Hispanic women have the second highest AIDS incidence rate in the US.
Asian women tend to fair much better than any other racial group. Asian women do tend to receive little to no reproductive healthcare, such as PAP smears. By not receiving this test, cervical cancer has slightly increased over the last decade in this group.
Continuing from the previous blog (dated 27/6/06/ 15:03)
Data suggests that women in general receive less medical attention and healthcare than men in the US. This has been assumed to be due to several factors. One such factor is a language barrier. Hispanic and Asian women may not be receiving information in their native tongue. Therefore, misunderstandings or a complete lack of understanding can occur. A second factor may be due to ethnic or cultural beliefs. Medical screenings or tests may not be allowed in some religions or cultures. A final factor that can create the healthcare gap among women are socio-economic factors.
More education and public awareness campaigns should be designed to specifically target women populations. By increasing knowledge, many of these health disparities could be significantly decreased.
s.d.
{Sorry, but here's the rest of my work}
For the graphs/maps/data search I looked at some things that would help me see the disparities with more hard data.
So I first sought CDC’s website for the top10 leading causes of Death in IL. I researched all ages and all races. I focused on the leading causes of deaths in general and found the top three to be 1) heart disease, 2) cancer, 3) lung disease. This data was consistent for all races except for American Indians for whom liver disease ranked as the number three killer.
Continuing on this trend, I looked up data from the National Cancer Institute and compared cancer mortality for minority men and women that seem to be the worst and best off from the health aspect, African-Americans in IL and in US to the white population of IL and the rest of the US. According to this data, IL seems to be worse than the rest of the US in every comparison, as the cancer rates in IL are higher than national rates. Also, men in general have higher cancer rates and women have much lower mortality incidences. However, in every comparison the African-Americans are worse off than the Caucasian population.
Finally, I looked at the poverty level in IL using USDA’s Economic Research Service. This map showed that the further down one gets in IL, the lower the income level is for the population. Basically, only the north middle of IL enjoys less poverty levels, otherwise the rest of the state is at a 10-26% poverty level. In fact, counties like DuPage and Kane enjoy some of the best income levels in IL, and counties such as Lee or Ogle are right behind them. However, the most interesting counties are some like Cook where one half is at a 3% poverty level and the other is at a 13%-26% level; this maybe due to the fact that Chicago houses both the wealthy and the poor at the same time.
-SP
The three background articles I read on Health Disparities were David Satcher's Health Disparities flier, HHS’s National Healthcare Disparities Report, 2005, and AMSA’s health disparity website. From the background articles and websites I focused on, I was able to learn that health disparities are not just caused by biological and genetic components of race and ethnicity that one typically thinks of, but also by economic conditions, access to health care, health behaviors, environment, level of education, and a number of other factors. The one fact that I found the most interesting while reading the background information is that someone with less than a high school education is more than three times as likely to die from asthma compared to someone who has completed at least some college.
As a future doctor, I found it very interesting that from a survey administered in 2002 to both physicians and the general public, the public believed many of the health disparities that existed in the U.S. were being caused directly by the physicians, while the physicians thought they were not the problem. I will be more aware of health disparities in the future and try to minimize health disparities within my rural practice. However, I realize that a physician has absolutely no control over many of the health disparities that exist.
I want to practice in rural Illinois someday so I used three inquiry tools to learn more about Illinois health disparities. First, I used the 2005 State Snapshots from the National Healthcare Quality Report. I was surprised to learn that Illinois’s strongest measures where they were above other states were with home health care and nursing homes while one of Illinois’s weakest measures where they were below other states was with the number of individuals above 65 years old receiving the influenza vaccine. I think this is important to note as our group focuses on developing media material on pandemic influenza. If our state is struggling to get vaccines to the elderly now, how would we handle the elderly in a pandemic situation?
Next, I looked at the Health Status Indicator Maps. In 1994, there were only 2 non-metropolitan counties in downstate Illinois with trauma centers. In rural Illinois, healthcare workers need to especially be prepared in advance for how to handle emergencies and transport patients to trauma centers when needed.
The lasts inquiry tool that I looked at was National Maps of Minorities in Rural Areas. I found a map from 2000 showing the number of patients per primary care physician throughout the U.S. According to this map, the majority of Illinois is medically underserved in terms of number of primary care physicians, especially the non-metropolitan areas.
In the future, I would suggest further education and recruitment of students from rural Illinois interested in healthcare that would go back and practice in rural Illinois. I also believe research and funding should continue to go towards reducing health disparities in rural areas. Rural Illinois cannot be treated like metropolitan areas because there are many unique health disparities that exist even throughout different rural areas of the state.
C.M.D.
I read several articles concerning health disparities focusing mainly on diabetes. Three articles I chose were from the CDC, Public Health Resource, U.S. Department or Health and Human Services-Office of Minority Health, and BRFSS State Data. I used these sites because they seemed to expalain the problem in the simplest format. I did find some of the sites to be a bit complicated in the info that they presented.
My findings showed that Diabetes seemed to be more prevalent in the Black, Hispanic and Native American populations. In the Black /Hispanic population it tends to be in the 65-74 year old range for both men and women and lowest in the 45 and under group. Blacks have the highest incindence with Hispanics running close by.
I did find that some ways that health care providers are working to eliminate health disparities are by education, promotion of health,delivery of adequate care, and prevention of disease. This would hopefully lead to an increase in the quality and quantity of life for those affected by the health disparities.
I.T.
Thanks a lot for such a wonderful site i see that you created it going the whole hog!!
- healthdisparitiesinfo.blogspot.com b
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For what I have seen, this site is not bad at all
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