Health Promotion in Minority Populations

Health Promotion in Minority Populations
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Health Promotion in Minority Populations
Good health is arguably the most important determinant of human well-being. Although the health status of African Americans has improved significantly in the last couple of decades, they still experience a wide range of health disparities compared to their white counterparts. According to Noonan, Velasco-Mondragon, & Wagner (2016), the population of African Americans in 2014 was about 42.3 million, representing 13% of the American population. Approximately 55% of the members of the African American ethnic minority group reside in the Southern states. The state with the highest number of African Americans is New York, with their population there being approximately 3.8 million. Race and ethnicity play a significant role in determining the health status of African Americans. As described by Noonan, Velasco-Mondragon, & Wagner (2016), African Americans experience systemic racism, which contributes significantly to health disparities. It is important to recognize that the issue of race is correlated with important elements of life such as education, housing, income, employment, and access to healthcare services (Noonan, Velasco-Mondragon, & Wagner, 2016). All these factors in one way or another affect life since they influence utilization of health information and access to health care services. Therefore, it is evident that for an African American, there exist many other social determinants of health including race and ethnicity.
Although significant progress has been made to reduce the gap in health outcomes, there still significant health disparities in the US. According to Holmes (2020), compared to a typical person in the US, African Americans are more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure, as well as general poor health status. African Americans are also more susceptible to obesity, which is a risk factor for serious diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. According to the CDC (2020), of the 37,968 new diagnoses of HIV in the US in 2018, African Americans accounted for about 42%. Furthermore, the organization points out that African Americans/Blacks died of HIV at a significantly higher rate compared to any other ethnic or racial group. Similar trends in racial disparities can be seen in other sexually transmitted diseases like Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, viral hepatitis, and syphilis. For example, in 2018, African Americans reported Gonorrhea cases at a rate of 7.7 times more than the rate for Whites. The prevalence, incidence, and mortality of diseases disproportionately affect African Americans compared to other racial groups.
Nutritional challenges play an immense role in cementing the health disparities. As noted by Kolahdooz, et al. (2016), poor quality diet is negatively correlated with socioeconomic status. In lower-income neighborhoods where African Americans predominantly live, there is lower access to healthy food as well as less number of different types of food stores compared to White neighborhoods. As a result, African Americans consume an unbalanced diet characterized by inadequate vegetables, fruit, and dairy. There is also a high intake of processed foods and...