Children and Diabetes, Coursework Example

The author of this critique contributes valuable ideas to close the existing health disparity between Caucasians and African-American male adolescents regarding type 2 diabetes mellitus prevalence. In particular, the author proposes that policymakers should provide tailored information, in a number of different publicly available areas, on a number of critical risk factors for diabetes to adolescent African-American males. While these policy recommendations certainly represent a step forward from the status quo, they are not likely strong or comprehensive enough to deal with the problem at hand.

In particular, there are three main risk factors that lead to type 2 diabetes in African-Americans: 1) Diet; 2) Level of physical exercise; 3) Family history (including race) (Marshall, 2006).  In assessing why African-American adolescent males may be at a higher risk for type two diabetes than their Caucasian counterparts, the main factors of differentiation are not likely due to an information asymmetry, but rather a problem of access, that is in turn, is related to issues of race and class. For example, increased access for African-American youth to health care resources (rather than just information), access to nutritious food (both at home and at school), and a safe place to exercise, could play a key role in reducing environmental at-risk factors in the African-American community (Millsteinm, Yeh, Brancati, Batts-Turner, Gary, 2009). If this hypothesis is indeed correct, only stronger policy solutions that incorporate numerous stakeholders will help ameliorate the problem. Policy suggestions along this line include working with schools to serve more nutritious food; in addition, both schools and community groups should work to open exercise facilities on weekdays and weekends that would allow for greater physical activity among this group of at-risk teenagers. Overall, health disparities are certainly not easy to solve; they are usually the product of long-term structural problems that involve critical aspects of an individual’s life. In order to solve, policy makers must adopt bold solutions to change behavior at the margin.

References

Marshall, M.C. (2006).  Diabetes in African Americans.  Postgraduate Medical Journal December 1, 2005 81:734-740

Millstein, R.A., Yeh, H.C., Brancati F.L., Batts-Turner, M., Gary, T.L. (2009). Food availability, neighborhood socioeconomic status, and dietary patterns among blacks with type 2 diabetes mellitus.  Medscape Journal of Medicine, 11(1):15.