Health Disparities

Introduction

Obesity is a health problem that disproportionately affects African Americans over the white population, particularly when it comes to women; as a result, African American women are at greater risk of developing diabetes, having cardiac arrest, or suffering from heart disease (Banerjee et al., 2018). While obesity is not a problem that affects only people of color, it is one that affects them more than others: 20.5% of African American girls vs. only 15.6 percent of white girls have been identified as obese (State of Obesity, 2018). One of the Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicator topics requiring attention from the health care community is the issue of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (2020 LHI Topics, 2018). Therefore, it is important this issue be addressed with particular attention given to African American women.

Health Problems/Factors That Influence Disparities

Culture, socioeconomics, and biology are all problems and factors that influence disparities (Bilger et al., 2017). For the African American female population, stressorssuch as living in or growing up in low-income communities, high crime areas, or communities where there has been a lack of socioeconomic development, can drive these individuals to consume less healthy foods and prevent them from having access to a healthy organic diet (Siddharth & Sharma, 2018). Because these factors introduce an element of instability into communities, black females have a more difficult time organizing or obtaining nutritious meals for their families or enjoying safe environments that are conducive to outdoors activity, such as sports or exercise.

There is also a lack of health literacy and preventive care that affects the situation (Hepburn, 2018; Michou et al., 2018). Preventive care is important in the delivery of care because otherwise vulnerable populations end up receiving only treatment when the health problem could have been prevented with a little more emphasis on the promotion of health literacy (Knickman & Elbel, 2019; Schneider, 2020). Yet because many black families have only schools where education is dismal (as is now famously the case in cities like Baltimore), there is a significant lack of health literacy among this population (Williams, 2017).

A lack of health equity is also a factor that negatively affects vulnerable populations and increases disparities, particularly among the black female population (Chinn et al., 2021). Health inequities are reflected in communities where there is a lack of access to proper care; for instance, in some urban communities it is more difficult for people in the community to see a doctor or nurse than it is in other wealthier communities where health care facilities proliferate. For blacks of a low socioeconomic demographic, access to care is limited and this leads to greater health disparities between blacks and generally wealthier whites.

Health problems that arise from biology and genetics also drive disparities: some populations are more vulnerable to genetic diseases, as is the case with the Native American population, which is highly vulnerable to diabetes and depression (Alva, 2020). For the black female population, biological influences may also be environmental influences. For example, black females that grow up in communities of low socioeconomic development are at greater risk of developing diabetes because the environmental factors impact the biological development of the group (Jensen et al., 2017).

Safety, nutrition, biology, economics and environment thus are all factors that influence disparities. Cultural issues also arise among health care workers: workers who lack cultural competencies fail to understand how to communicate well with different cultural groups, and thus messaging is constricted. To empower various ethnic groups, health care workers have to be culturally sensitive so that they can know the best ways to communicate, the best ways to promote the health interests of these populations, and the best ways to provide preventive care and increase health literacy in their communities.

Principles of the Black Perspective

The principle of Affirmation is the first and most important of the six principles of the black perspective: it celebrates the richness, productivity and...

…facilities, the development of more parks and green spaces, the hiring of more law enforcement to create safer environments, and the allurement of more investment so that appropriately healthy stores and markets can be installed that will promote healthy lifestyles. Policy has to be all-encompassing rather than approached piecemeal. If one aspect of the problem is not addresed, it can undermine the entire initiative. Curbing obesity among the vulnerable population is really only part of the battle to bring equity to all populations. Policy has to address the lower level needs of communities to ensure that these same communities can become self-actualizing and ultimately healthier.

Implication Related to Practice

Health care workers have to receive appropriate training in cultural sensitivity, increasing their cultural competencies so that they understand the best approaches to communicating with at-risk populations like black women, who are more susceptible to developing obesity than are members of the white population. Health care workers also have to be advocates, working with community leaders, businesses, schools, and administrators to promote and foster environments that facilitate the establishment of healthy lifestyles. Health care workers, like social workers, must be political advocates, uniting all the tools of transformation in a holistic and unified effort to increase health equity, health literacy, and healthy change. The more that health care workers take on greater responsibilities in the community, and the more that they are hired specifically to collaborate with members of the community, the more likely both are to benefit from the revitalization of these same communities. Practice has to be all-encompassing and collaborative, with interprofessional organization serving as the key to addressing health inequity and disparity.

Conclusion

Many factors affect health disparities, such as environmental, socioeconomic, biological, and environmental factors. The black principle of affirmation, however, is important to remember when discussing an issue like obesity among the black population: affirmation vitalizes and leads the way to self-actualization. To fully self-actualize, the necessary supports have to be in place so that lower level…