The Disparity in Healthcare in the African American Community, Essay Example

The public health and healthcare system should be one of the biggest concerns of our government today. Efforts should be made in the pursuit to make a clear understanding of the kind of disparities that exist in our medical sector. Moreover, it should be determined why up until this era; there are significant disparities in finding their way in our community and demographic lines. MMWR has indicated that “There are multiple factors contribute to racial/ethnic health disparities, including socioeconomic factors (e.g., education, employment, and income), lifestyle behaviors”.

Consequently, the affected communities continue to register more large incidences of diseases and ailments. From previous studies, it has found that diabetes and heart diseases are the primary causes of death of members of the African American community. This paper discusses the medical discrepancies that continuously affect the African American community.

Various studies done by the medical sector in the country have proved that there is a significant difference between the treatment and care services administered between the white patients and black patients. There is a specific study that has done a systematic review that has been published in “Academic Emergency Medicine”. The study has gathered all the researches that analyze the biases and prejudices by the physicians. It states that “there is a relationship between this bias and clinical decision making.” In their findings, they indicate that “This bias was associated with a greater chance that whites would be treated for myocardial infarction than African-Americans.”  In various instances, the minority groups have been receiving disproportionate treatment as compared to their counterparts in the white community. Subsequently, the minority groups, particularly the African American community, have experienced multiple prevalences of injuries, various diseases, and premature death.

Statistically, around 50% of medical students from the white community have stated that in their opinion, there is a difference between black and white people. These differences are both physical and psychological. From researches, the differences that have been noticed is that African American person is has a thicker skin and has a nerve ending that is less sensitive as opposed to their white counterparts. The above belief has caused lowering the quality of health care services offered to the black community. The stereotypes and racial biases against the minority groups have intensified have been creating more and more inequalities in treatment and deliverance of health care services in various communities. Therefore, there is a call to the education ministry to make sure that there is education training on matters related to racism in healthcare curriculum. This will go a long way in reducing implicit biases in the medical sector.

BMC Ethics have continued to carry out a systematic review to analyze this issue deeply. From the 42 studies that have been gathered in the process, BMC Ethics says that “Only 15 of which used the Implicit Association Test, and concluded that physicians are just like everyone else. Their biases are consistent with those of the general population.” BMC also give cations that the prejudices “will have a significant influence on to affect diagnosis and care.”

Racism and another form of discrimination have taken a toll on how the public services are offered in our society. In the medical sector particularly, prejudices in prescription and treatment rendered mainly by the belief that black people have different physical features. This perspective is owned and has been cultivated by the white for a very long time.

Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine published a survey where patients with severe osteoarthritis and family physicians participated. From the findings of the study, “The participants reported that they believed the white patients were being more medically cooperative than the African-American ones.”

It is excruciating to observe that white individuals in the medical sector, genuinely believe there exist physiological disparities between the two races. As a result, more black people are left in pain that their counterpart white individuals during the same treatment. Many are the African Americans who have been receiving poor or no treatment purely because of the color of their skin.

In another even sad findings, from thorough literature reviews done by the Institute of Medicine in 2013, it is documented that “African-American patients are treated differently than white patients when it comes to cardiovascular procedures. There were differences in whether they received optimal care with respect to a cancer diagnosis and treatment. African-Americans were less likely to receive appropriate care when they were infected with H.I.V.”

Due to the stereotypes about illicit drug usage among the then black community in the United States, they are denied a chance to receive medical treatment even when the situation is warranted. The medical students who naively believe that black people are physically different end up providing inaccurate treatment recommendation. From the medical statistics, in the year 2002, “Non-Hispanic blacks who died from HIV disease had approximately 11 times† as many age-adjusted years of potential life lost before age 75 years per 100,000 population as non-Hispanic whites.” This show clear how effective these prejudices and biases are in oppressing the black community in the country.

The physicians who happen to deny the black people the pain medications are not aware of their behaviours. The full impact is as the side effect of an unjust society. The majority of the providers have implicit biases that they require to work on. From a study carried out on medical providers, white doctors did well in identifying pain in white patients as opposed to black patients. This is a massive indication that there are crucial cultural issues that are needed to be discussed to resolve the matter in society. The doctors and other health providers are humans and a part of the community, and therefore, they are prone to these biases. However, they are arguably the most critical professionals in society. Other professionals from other fields with biases might be tolerated by any prejudice or bias in the medical field should be eliminated.

In recent decades, there has been the development of various ways in which these implicit biases and stereotypes could be eliminated. In an article published by MMWR on Health Disparities Experienced by African American, there are articulated facts and statistics to display the variations. It states that “Racial health disparities are used as the indicators and markers of progress in national health objectives.” However, MMWR states that “non-Hispanic blacks had substantially higher proportions of certain negative health indicators than non-Hispanic whites.”

The most sensitive group with these prejudices is medical students. The physicians and other health professionals have been focusing on building up health partnerships with their patients. They do this, aiming to reduce implicit and stereotypes to improve their care to the minority patients. If a healthcare provider develops a personal connection with the patient will go a long way in helping them to correct their prejudices.

Additionally, now more than ever, there have been elaborate and widespread war against any form of racism. Subsequently, these overt expressions against racism or any discrimination have significantly reduced prejudices, particularly in the health sector. Therefore, over the years, there has been an improvement in bring equality in healthcare services for all the communities. There also has the effort of facilitating and encouraging the interaction of the health provider with the patients in different states. This has helped in understanding the conditions in which various patients are.

In multiple training institutions, more programs that are set to eliminate prejudices and biases among medical students have been initiated. The students are now taught how to be conscious when it comes to matters that are related to race and ethnic groups.

In conclusion, it is safe to say that the African American community has been on the receiving end in generally many areas and particularly in the health sector. Many individuals from minority groups have experienced unfair treatment and have consequently suffered as results. The situation is alarming and has caused deaths in numerous instances. However, there have been laid out plans to curb the situation. The government and society at large have been at the forefront in bringing equality in the medical sector.