Health Disparities Essay

Disparities in healthcare are a real and urgent problem in our nation. There is indisputable data supporting the fact that disparities exist not only across different racial groups, but also across the cultural and economic stratification of our society. Moreover, there is even data showing disparities among each of these respective groups along gender lines. So what can be done about these disparities to assure that all patients receive equal and adequate care? Well, there are certainly many political and governmental changes or modifications that would go a long way towards narrowing the gaps in healthcare, but such changes are beyond the scope of this paper. Instead, I will focus on the steps that I,

One source to support my research is a scholarly article that discusses the subject of racism in the health world, as well as how that negatively affects a patient’s health making them another statistic. The author clearly states “There are well documented racial disparities in health care as well as health status” (4). I plan to use this source to set the tone for the research, this article answers the basic questions about the relationship between racism and health gaps. The next piece is also a scholarly article, that focuses on the effects of health disparities on children. This article is vital for this research project because many individuals who grow up to have health issues related to disparities, encounter racism and develop the health issues. These children then grow up and are likely to have children

The recommended vaccinations for children entering kindergarten are 4 doses of diphtheria, tetanus toxoid, and acellular pertussis (DTaP), 2 doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, and 2 doses of the varicella vaccine. The national Healthy People 2020 goal for kindergarten vaccination rates is 95%. Although the majority of states report vaccination rates at or near the goal, clusters of non-vaccinated groups can develop in some communities (Seither, 2014, p.1). Anthropological studies showed that the higher rates of non-vaccination correlated with outbreaks of diseases for which children typically receive vaccines. In reaction to numerous outbreaks related to higher rates of non-vaccinated children, California and other states introduced legislation to make it more

Natalie also explained, “Many Natives didn’t trust the whites that worked in the hospital, mainly because of the history we have with them’’ (Personal communication, 2017). We caused a lot of pain and suffering to the Indians through genocidal assaults and removal of sacred land. This mistrust puts a big barrier between patient and provider communication. In “The Persistence of American Indian Health Disparities”, David Jones (2006) discussed religion as a major contributor to health disparities in the last 500 years, along with socioeconomic conditions, and politics impressed on them by the whites. Lack of education and medical knowledge, and environmental situations the American Indians lived in also contributed to poor health literacy

Health disparities are the inequalities that appear in the arrangement of healthcare and approaches to healthcare across different racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and socioeconomic group.

- Health Science Scholars Honors Thesis - I am writing my honors thesis for Health Science Scholars on urban-rural health disparities and different strategies that have been attempted globally to alleviate these inequalities. In my research, I have learned more about the huge disparities that exist in access in the US and globally and I hope to be able to work to alleviate these disparities.

Health Disparities- differences in morbidity, mortality and access to health among population group defined by factors such as socioeconomic status, gender residence, race and ethnicity.

Due to the attention the anti-vaccination movement has received, many researchers have attempted to determine who is participating in the anti-vaccination movement. I am not the first to call for distinctions in children who were not fully-up-to-date (FUTD) on vaccines from those who are. Previous research on vaccination status has considered the children of “non vaccinators” as two distinct groups: undervaccinated and unvaccinated. Unlike selectively-vaccinated children, who intentionally were spared a particular vaccine, in much of this research undervaccinated children are identified as those who have inconsistent access to medical care (Reich 2014). Undervaccinated children are more likely to share particular demographic characteristics such as being below the poverty line, having a mother who is younger, unmarried, and has not attended college (Reich 2014; Smith 2004). This group is perceived to be unable, in most circumstances, to obtain the recommended vaccinations due to a wide variety of external factors. Undervaccinated children, in this sense, have been of particular interest to public health officials as they have attempted to implement programs to remove the cost of vaccines to increase availability (Smith et al. 2008). Undervaccination, like discussed earlier, has been reduced with the enactment of the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program by the United States government (Whitney et al. 2014).

If the bill had been passed, it would have provided residents sustained transparency, guaranteed parents the right to access vaccine reports that would keep them well informed, and assist them in making safe and appropriate decisions for their child (Texas H.B. 2249, 2017). On the other hand, as parents are opting out of their child receiving immunizations, conflicting values may arise. As vaccine exemption rates are rising, vaccine coverage levels are beginning to decline, putting the community in a predicament. When a high number of people within a population are immunized to a disease, it lessens the likelihood of the spread of disease also referred as herd immunity (Warren, 2017). Herd immunity threshold must be met in order to

Childhood Immunization Status Domain: Community/ Population Health a difficulty from this measure is that some parents will not vaccinate

One of the safest and most effective health tools available for preventing disease and mortality in ourselves and our community are immunizations. Before vaccinations, many children died from vaccine preventable diseases, such as whooping cough and polio. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that there has been a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases recently, like the 1979 pertussis epidemic in Japan when prior to the pandemic in 1974 had an 80% child vaccination rate (“Why Immunize?,” 2014). Due to modern cultural practices and trends, immunization coverage of children and the relevance of vaccination against childhood diseases have been adversely affected. Reports show that social and political processes, such as developing views like natural lifestyles, have influenced parents’ decisions on vaccinating their children, especially in terms of herd immunity and having the ability to opt out. Well established programs such as The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) plays a role in children’s immunization, making sure that children are properly immunized by screening immunization records of children under age 2, and referring parents to immunization and other health services (Carlson & Neuberger, 2015). This paper examines the social, political, and cultural aspects of immunizations in terms of herd immunity, current immunization practices, new ways of reconsidering vaccination strategies, how to

They can determine whether patients require vaccinations through access to medication records or ‘inferred diagnosis’ made when reviewing prescription records (Bach & Goad, 2015). Their traditional role is distributing medication, but they may also provide immunisations, such as the Tdap vaccine which is supplied by pharmacies in 43 states in the U.S. (Mills, Fensterheim, Taitel, & Cannon, 2014). By supplying vaccines, pharmacies make immunisation more convenient by providing a solution to a significant barrier for immunisation, this being ease-of-access (Mills et al., 2014). In addition, they may also be involved in educating their community on available vaccines and where to go to obtain them, further reducing this barrier in the local community (Bach & Goad,

In order to emphasize the significance of creating organized education interventions specific to a country’s socioeconomic factors, I will compare the impact of the discussions in several countries. As expressed by the results of the survey conducted by Lori K. Handy et al., parents from Greece, Botswana, and the Dominican Republic had differing opinions about their confidence in vaccination education. Therefore, a country’s political, economic, and social state can have an impact on parents’ trust in healthcare providers as well. The responses from the participants in the

Thesis Statement: Recently, the United States has seen a resurgence of many different diseases that we haven 't seen in decades. Much of this problem is caused by failure to get vaccinations, and a key step to solving the issue is education.

Not all doctors believe that vaccine injury needs to happen to children. In What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children’s Vaccinations, Dr. Stephanie Cave points out an example of Dr. Viera Scheibner, while studying SIDS, she determined that “vaccination is the single most … preventable cause of infant deaths” (Cave 113). Parents should not be required to accept the possible risk of