Health Disparities Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 75

Health Disparities - Assignment Example For example, health statistics indicate that African Americans experience the highest mortality rates from cerebrovascular disease, HIV/AIDS, cancer and heart disease more than any other racial or ethnic group in the United States (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2012). Most of the American Indians die from unintentional injuries, cirrhosis, liver disease and diabetes. The reasons for these health disparities among racial and ethnic groups is complex and clearly not understood, but they largely relate to socioeconomic differences, environmental degradation, differences in health-related risk factors, and direct and indirect impacts of racial and ethnic discrimination (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2012). This paper, therefore, reflects on two articles and establishes whether the information and data presented hold true in addressing health disparities among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., and further recommends solutions to practices or beliefs that seem to support these biased patterns. Jack Geiger, in his article â€Å"Racial and ethnic disparities in diagnosis and treatment: a review of the evidence and a consideration of causes,† reviewed a number of researched works addressing health disparities issues in the United States. He established that the fundamental explanations of disparities and the key determinants of population health status among American racial and ethnic groups lie in physical, social, and economic environment, which are, in turn, influenced by the larger society’s values, norms, political economy, and social stratification systems (Geiger, 2003). He further identifies that the two variables that most studies frequently cited as the leading cause of disparities reflected beliefs and values which are common in the larger society. The first is biological differences (racial) as a significant contributor to health disparities. I agree with the author that, in spite of the current understanding of race as a social concept, the notion of the significance of racial grouping, in terms of medical grounds, continues to appear even in the current societies.  Ã‚