Racial and Ethnic Disparities In Health Care

Categories: Medicare

This is an issue that has been fairly new in terms of understanding black women maternity in the healthcare industry. The big picture is that system-related changes are well needed in order to help reform such disparities from ever occuring. The CDC has a solution in which health care providers need to help patients better manage chronic conditions that could be exacerbated by preganancy. In their report, more than a third of pregnany-related deaths were due to cardiovascular conditions. Barfield says that cardiovascular disease is more common among black women and can occur at earlier ages than in white women.

“In addition, Barfield says that some inequities can be explained by variation in hospital quality. 'This can mean that effective interventions may not be occurring for black women,' she says, or that the timing of the intervention may not be appropriate. 'Minority women are delivering in different and lower-quality hospitals than white women,' she says, adding that this could clearly affect outcomes.

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This is not something that is relatively new as black women face struggles to be able to live a health life.

As compared to white women, black woman are four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women (Amnesty International, 2010).

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Babies born prematurely, before 37 weeks gestation, and babies born weighing less than 2500g are particularly at risk for bad outcomes (Giurgescu, Engeland, & Templin, 2015). In the United States, black women are more likely to give birth prematurely and to a low-birth weight baby than white women (Amnesty International, 2010). There are many factors that contribute to this statistic including medical factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and preeclampsia. However, we cannot undermine the social and economic factors facing black women in America today. African American women are more likely to live in poor living conditions. They face poverty, crime, and a lack of social support. Women who used maladaptive coping strategies such as avoidance of their feelings, isolation and not following healthy lifestyle behaviors had a higher chance of suffering from depression. It becomes a vicious cycle. Women are stressed, scared, they feel hopeless or powerless and they stop taking care of themselves. By not taking caring of themselves they increase their rates of depression due to high cortisol levels. The more depressed they feel, the less they can take steps to get help, so they isolate of avoid or abuse and therein the cycle continues all over again.

This is nothing new to the ears of public health workers. Raising awareness only does so little. Until actions are taken and provide African American women health equity by means of community resources, access and transportation to medical care, home visitation, education, and basic human rights such as safe living conditions, women will suffer, babies will die and nothing will change.

There is no true color that defines biology. Racial and ethnic disparities in the medical system goes beyond the color of skin as research shows. Racial disparities in health care and Racial disparities in health are not the same ethical issue but are one can potentially affect the other. Evidence has shown this issue is killing people of color. The question then becomes what can we do as citizens to close this disparity gap? Lower income minorities have to be more aware of their well-being and become informed citizens when it comes to health because if not these disparities can become the leading cause of death in minorities. In the world of biology everything is seen black and white. To some researchers racial disparities in health care is the result in the color of their skin, to others it's something with a deeper meaning that dates back to the establishment of the world and colony.

Updated: Feb 02, 2024
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Racial and Ethnic Disparities In Health Care. (2024, Feb 04). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/racial-and-ethnic-disparities-in-health-care-essay

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