Promoting Health Amongst African-Americans Research Paper

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Health Status

Health promotion among diverse populations

Health status of a minority group: African-Americans

As is the case with all precious commodities, good health is not distributed equally throughout the population. Profound disparities exist between genders, ethnic groups, religious groups, and also between races. While some of these differences may be attributed to genetics, environmental and social trends as well as epigenetic factors (the interaction between environment and one's genetic makeup) are also factors. This paper will specifically focus on the current health status of African-Americans as relative to whites and to the American population at large and suggest interventions to improve that status.

African-Americans: Current health status

Overall, the health status of African-Americans as a group is considerably worse than that of the general population based upon a wide array of health indicators. African-Americans are disproportionately more likely to suffer from and die from chronic illnesses like heart disease and high blood pressure.: African-Americans have the highest death rates from heart disease and stroke compared with all other racial and ethnic populations; a disparity also found in age groups younger than 85 years of age as well as older Americans ("Black or African-American populations," 2015). Hypertension rates are also higher for African-American adults ("Black or African-American populations," 2015).

One of the reasons the prognosis for African-Americans is so poor regarding their health status is the prevalence of obesity within this demographic. Although the U.S. As a whole is heavier than it has been in the past, the obesity rates amongst African-Americans are far higher. Obesity is linked to a number of chronic conditions and negative long-term health outcomes, including diabetes -- the prevalence of diabetes amongst African-Americans is nearly twice as high as those of whites ("Black or African-American populations," 2015).

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Obesity amongst African-American women is particularly chronic: "50% of African-American women develop Type 2 diabetes in their lifetime" (Dingfelder 2013). While it might be assumed that higher rates of poverty and a lack of access to safe places to exercise are partially the source of this trend, it alone cannot explain these statistics, given that amongst African-American women, increasing levels of education and higher economic status do not mitigate the risk of obesity to the same degree as with Caucasian women. While "issues of food and recreation justice and high levels of racial and environmental stress are creating the perfect storm for rising rates of obesity," genetic and cultural issues may also be a factor as well as the psychological stresses of racism (Dingfelder 2013).

High rates of fast food consumption further contribute to high obesity rates, coupled with low rates of available supermarkets. Other contributing factors include the finding that "African-American women who have children young, are overweight at the time of pregnancy, or gain an excess amount of weight during pregnancy have a higher prevalence of obesity compared to white women" (Friday 2012). In other words, factors which compound obesity in all demographics have a particularly notable chance in raising an African-American woman's risk for obesity. Obese mothers are more likely to give birth to children who suffer a high risk of obesity and in the African-American demographic, rates of childhood obesity are far higher than in the general population. At present, 35.9% of African-American children are overweight or obese, versus 31.7%….....

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