Question

Find an article highlighting health disparity in the United States from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, American Journal of Public Health, or another peer-reviewed source. Read the article, briefly summarize its contents, and compare the findings to the assigned readings from Healthy People 2020 and other literature on health disparities within two pages.

Answer 1

Disparities in healthcare delivery means inequalities in providing healthcare & access to healthcare between different groups of a population. Though there are several legislations to provide access to health care, there exist disparities across many dimensions which include race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, and gender & disability status. Disparities in health care delivery reduces improvement in quality of care & increases cost to society. Poverty, lower rate of education & poor health care delivery increase morbidity & mortality rates. Disparities are related to different factors with different set of individual, provider, health system, societal & environmental factors.

We will discuss some forms of disparities in healthcare delivery below.

Racial & ethnic disparities: Racial & ethnic disparities refer to inequalities in providing access to healthcare based on race & ethnicity of an individual. Generally people of color & minority ethnicity experience more barriers in access of healthcare. Studies show that Hispanics, Blacks, American Indians & afro Americans have high morbidity and mortality from various chronic diseases compared to whites. They also have a higher prevalence of asthma, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Infant mortality rate are also higher for Blacks, American Indians & Alaska natives.

Socio economic disparities: This refers to inequalities in providing healthcare access based on socio economic status. Studies show that low income adolescents living in poverty have twice the odds of having decayed teeth, half of the dental visits & are less likely to have dental insurance. The incident rate of cancer is 10% higher in low income groups. They also experience low health care responsiveness from health providers. Socioeconomic disparities are present in health system responsiveness for lower income groups.

Age & gender based disparities: There are sex based differences in medical care delivery as studies show that men experience advantageous position compared to women. Though it’s not the case with every health care organization but there are some incidences of such difference in healthcare delivery. The women from Black, Hispanic & minority groups have low health care responsiveness from health providers. Age also plays important role in health care delivery process as older people sometimes experience low quality of health care delivery.