Health Promotion and Disparities for African Americans

Health Promotion in Minority Population
Student's Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Name and Number
Lecturer's Name
Assignment Due Date
Health Promotion in Minority Population
The ethnic minority group selected is the black/African American. African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with partial or total ancestry from Africa. They make up about 13.4% of the United States population (Tailor, 2019). Research shows that African Americans live longer, most of them have health insurance coverage (CDC, 2020). However, this group still experiences illness and infirmity at excessively high rates. Compared to other racial groups, African Americans are sicker and die earlier. The increased morbidity and mortality among black Americans are attributed to inadequate access to quality healthcare. According to Noonan et al.,(2016), black people do not receive the same quality of healthcare care as their white counterparts.
New analysis shows that young black Americans live with or die of conditions found in whites at older ages (CDC, 2020). When diseases start early, they can cause early deaths. Whenever there is a disease outbreak, the African American death rate will always exceed the whites due to limited access to quality health services. Additionally, black people have lower life expectancy than other racial groups (Noonan et al., 2016). Low life expectancy among African Americans is influenced by a higher prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and sexually transmitted infections than whites (Baciu et al., 2017).
How Race and Ethnicity Influence Health for African Americans
African Americans tend to suffer from discrimination and segregation based on race and ethnicity. Tailor (2019) study indicated that racist experiences increase inflammation in black Americans, raising the risk of chronic illness. Tailor (2019) argued that, because the body's response to stressors—such as racism adversity—compromises critical systems responsible for fending off disease, prolonged exposure to racism causes African Americans' health to suffer significantly with chronic illness due to inflammation that attacks the body's defense (Tailor, 2019). Chronic diseases linked to racism include heart attack, metastatic cancer, and neurodegenerative disease. Further studies have shown that discrimination against black people leads to stress. Stress can lead to unhealthy behaviors such as alcohol and drug abuse that damage physical health.
The racial discrimination experienced by African Americans in the healthcare systems also limits their access to quality healthcare. Current research shows that the American healthcare system is marred with racial discrimination or unfair judgment by healthcare providers (Noonan et al., 2016). This discrimination limits African Americans' access to quality care, resulting in higher risks of illness and cumulative adverse effects on people's lives.
Health Disparities for African Americans
For African Americans in the U.S., health disparities take on numerous forms, including higher rates of chronic diseases, health coverage, mental health, and premature death than other races. Data shows that about 10.6% of black Americans are insu...