Health Disparities – Comparing Black and White non-Hispanic American Men Aged 45 years

Health Disparities – Comparing Black and White non-Hispanic American Men Aged 45 years

Major health disparities in the United States are due to differences in levels of education, income, health insurance, level of education, and cultural perception of health among racial groups (Bell et al., 2020). Understanding the disparities in health can help predict the leading causes of death among various sociocultural groups and help design health systems that help decrease these disparities, as per the Healthy People 2020 initiative. This analysis will compare the health disparities between Black non-Hispanic American men aged 45 years old and White non-Hispanic American men also aged 45 years to understand the leading causes of death and the possible clinical and community interventions to reduce such disparities. As such, my predictions for the top three leading causes of death among Black non-Hispanic American men aged 45 years old are cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and homicide. On the other hand, my predictions for the top three causes of death among White non-Hispanic American men aged 45 years are also cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and probably chronic respiratory diseases. These predictions are based on the common social determinants of health and lifestyle behaviors a majority of Black and White men experience or live within their communities.

I comparatively reviewed various types of data and information on mental and physical health, chronic health conditions, income, health insurance, level of education, and cultural perception of health between Black American males aged 45 years and their White male counterparts within the same age group. Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office, National Center for Health Statistics, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) compiled and published by Carratala and Maxwell and Hill et al. in 2020 and 2023, respectively, highlight significant disparities in health insurance, prevalence of chronic health conditions, mental health, and death and causes of across racial/ethnic groups. For instance, according to Carratala and Maxwell (2020), an estimated 10.6% of Black Americans remained uninsured as of 2017 compared to only 5.9% of uninsured non-Hispanic whites. As of 2021, 11% percent of Black Americans were further uninsured compared to 7% of their White counterparts (Hill et al., 2023). Notably, Black American males aged 45 years compared to their White male counterparts within the same age group had higher instances of chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and hypertension, with overall poorer health outcomes and lower life expectancy (Hill et al., 2023). I further compared the top ten causes of death among Black American men aged 45 years compared to their White male counterparts of the same age. The top ten leading causes of death identified among Non-Hispanic Black American men aged 45 years or above based on data up to 2019 were cardiovascular diseases, cancer, unintentional injuries, diabetes, kidney diseases, chronic liver disease & cirrhosis, chronic lower respiratory disease (CLRD), hypertension, and homicide. For the Non-Hispanic White males of the same age, the top ten leading causes of death as of 2019 included cardiovascular diseases, cancer, unintentional injuries, suicide, chronic liver disease & cirrhosis, chronic lower respiratory disease (CLRD), diabetes, stroke, influenza and pneumonia, and septicemia. Reviewed recent data on cause of death among Blacks and White populations show COVID-19 to be the third leading cause of death for both races, with Alzheimer’s disease taking 9^th position among elderly Black Americans and 7^th position among elderly White Americans. My previous predictions on the leading causes of death for men aged 45 years of age from both racial groups were very close to the actual top ten causes of death; after all, all of the predictions were among the identified top causes. These findings are not a surprise, as specific conditions disproportionately affect each racial group due to genetic susceptibility and related sociocultural factors. These differences in death among men aged 45 years of age from both non-Hispanic Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites can also be explained by the complex interplay between genetic differences and disease susceptibility and the differences in social and cultural factors across the racial groups.

The topic area from the Healthy People 2020 initiative explored in this analysis is diabetes. Notably, diabetes is a chronic condition that has disproportionately impacted Black and White Americans. A review of the progress of the Healthy People 2020 initiative shows that major goals of diabetes remain unachieved, especially the disparities in health outcomes related to diabetes on the basis of race (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2020). This has been a major focus of the subsequent Healthy People 2030 initiative. The clinical recommendations for decreasing disparities in diabetes outcomes include improved rate screening, access to medications, better medication management to manage blood sugar levels, and improved lifestyle modifications. The recommended community interventions include better health education and promotion and better access to healthy foods. On consumer information on diabetes, there are enormous amounts of information provided on diabetes management, healthy lifestyle modifications, community information resources on diabetes that help individuals understand diabetes symptomatology and self-management, as well as available health coverage plans for diabetes care.

Conclusion

Black American men aged 45 years compared to Non-Hispanic White males within the same age group experience significantly varied levels of health outcomes and death regardless of almost similar leading causes of death. The goals of the Healthy People initiative to reduce these disparities can only be achieved if focus is paid to the individual differences in behaviors and social determinants of health among the various racial, age, and gender groups.

References

Bell, C. N., Sacks, T. K., Thomas Tobin, C. S., & Thorpe, R. J. (2020). Racial non-equivalence of socioeconomic status and self-rated health among African Americans and Whites. SSM – Population Health, 10, 100561. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SSMPH.2020.100561

Carratala, S., & Maxwell, C. (2020, May 20). Health disparities by race and ethnicity. Center for American Progress2020. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/health-disparities-race-ethnicity/

Hill, L., Ndugga, N., & Artiga, S. (2023, March 15). Key data on health and health care by race and ethnicity. Kaiser Family Foundation. https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/report/key-data-on-health-and-health-care-by-race-and-ethnicity/

U.S. Department of Health and Human Service. (2020). Healthy People 2020: An end of decade snapshot. https://health.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/21%20HP2020EndofDecadeSnapshot2.pdf

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Instructions
Health Disparities Assignment
An important part of the biopsychosocial perspective is the sociocultural perspective. It looks at how social and cultural factors contribute to health and disease. While advances in medicine have decreased mortality rates of many diseases, disparities exist across various sociocultural groups. The main objective of the Healthy People 2020 initiative is to decrease these disparities.

Health Disparities

Consider two comparison groups that you would like to research. Choose one of the following:

Compare groups belonging to different races or ethnicities, keeping the age and gender constant.
Compare groups belonging to different age ranges, keeping the race or ethnicity and gender constant.
Compare groups belonging to different genders, keeping the race or ethnicity and age constant.
For example, you might compare eighteen- to twenty-four-year-old white males with eighteen- to twenty-four-year-old males of color. Another example would be comparing thirty-five- to forty-four-year-old female Latinas with sixty-five- to seventy-four-year-old female Latinas. You could also compare forty-five- to fifty-four-year-old female Asians with forty-five- to fifty-four-year-old male Asians.

For this assignment, you will first predict and then research the top causes of death for each of your chosen comparison groups. You will:

Write a paragraph in which you predict the top three causes of death for each of your chosen comparison groups.
Use the Internet to identify health disparities. You can search using the keywords “Healthy People 2020.”

Conduct a comparison of the top ten causes of death across your selected populations.

In the second paragraph, summarize and interpret your findings. How close was your prediction? Were there any surprises? How might you explain the results of your study?
Explore the topic area of Healthy People from the Healthy People 2020 initiative. Select a topic that is of interest to you, such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease, or accidents. In the third paragraph, review the topic selected and report on clinical recommendations, community interventions, and consumer information about the topic.