...addressed in the report is the African American or black ethnic group that in 2013 comprised of 15% of the United States population. More African Americans rate health services in their community as fair to poor than whites (Becker and Newsom, 2003). Life expectancy has more than doubled for African Americans in the 20th century but they still face a higher burden of disability, disease and death than do whites (Becker and Newsom, 2003). By identifying and understanding the health disparities and being aware of the differences regarding health determinants and outcomes in the African American population the better able we are to do something to reduce these disparities (CDC Newsroom). The top three Health disparities among the African American population include heart disease as the number one cause of death, cancer, and stroke (CDC and Prevention). African Americans had the largest number of deaths from heart disease and stroke in the United States compared to other ethnic groups. They have the highest prevalence in untreated hypertension which leads to both heart disease and strokes. (CDC) They’re less likely to seek early medical attention and health checkups which can lead to late detection of cancers. African American women had the largest prevalence of obesity in 2007-2010 as compared to white and Mexican American woman. The ethnic group itself including adult men and women had the largest prevalence of obesity compared to the white and Mexican American groups which can...
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...There are a number of factors that may account for the disproportionately high rate of violence in some African American communities. One potential factor for the high rates of violence in African American communities may relate to problems with acculturation. For instance, the research suggests that acculturative stress is a relatively strong predictor of domestic violence (Hall, 2010). However, a study Fite, Wynn, and Pardini (2009), which evaluated the discrepancies in the number of arrests rates between African American and European American male juveniles, found that arrests relating to violent crimes were related to the over-exposure to early childhood risk factors for crime and recidivism, such as poor academic performance in school,...
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...African-American College Students: Personal History, Struggles, and Graduation Rheon Gibson Northern Illinois University Abstract In this report, I discuss the importance of African-American college students in higher education realms and why the topic appeals to my interests. I will also identify trends in research questions, methodology, and research findings; regarding three identified themes; Personal History, Struggles, and Graduation. In addition, I will provide the reader with an evaluation/critique of the existing literature, including; 1) contributions of literature to the field, 2) overall strengths, 3) overall weaknesses, 4) missing elements, and 5) what are the next steps for research. African-American College Students: Personal History, Struggles, and Graduation Introduction Importance to the Field Educational attainment amongst African-Americans is a crucial concept that not only affects African-American communities but it also affects society as a whole. Education provides a solid foundation for individuals to experience personal growth, increase one’s socioeconomic status, and obtain professional careers and licensures. Obtaining higher education does not begin upon admission to an accredited college or university; instead, it begins when one is first introduced to the educational system. This introduction can be in Kindergarten, Pre-K, the first year of home school, or wherever the first fundamental steps of acquiring a higher knowledge of comprehension...
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...INTRODUCTION African Americans including those of more than one race constitute 15.2% of the U.S population. (CDC, 2011) The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) conducted in 2012 reports that white (38%) and Asians (37%) are more likely to be in excellent health than African Americans (31%). (NHIS) 14.6% of blacks of all ages reported of poor or fair health which is higher than the general population.37.9% of African American men and 57.6% of women above the age of 20 are obese.39.9% of men and 44.5% of women above 20 of African American origin have hypertension.17.8% of African American people under 65 does not have health insurance.(CDC,2011) Leading causes of death among African Americans are heart disease, cancer and stroke. Obesity and diabetes are twice as prevalent among Africans compared to white adults. They have the largest death rates from homicides compared to any racial or ethnic population.(CDC,2011) African Americans also have the highest incidence and death rates from colorectal cancer and HIV infection rates. Prescribed HIV treatment among African Americans living with HIV is also less compared to white adults.(CDC,2011) A larger percent of African American adults live in poverty and does not have a high school education compared to the general population. All of this data points toward poor health status among African Americans. Studies have shown that African Americans underutilize preventive...
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...for African Americans. The racial inequality among African Americans in America is not the same as that of different workers or exiles. As far as the broadened time of the establishment of subjection and the issue of skin shade as a representation for dehumanization of dark individuals. For four centuries (1619-2002) African Americans have battled through bitter times of subjugation, isolation, and separation (Bennett, 1993). Topics of race, prejudice, and racial separation are established in the consequence of servitude and endure throughout present American life. Calculated by a mixture of components such as education, income, and occupation, socioeconomic status; viewed as the social status of an individual or gathering of people. The effects it has on the African American population can range from poverty, poor health to low educational levels. Research has demonstrated that race and ethnicity regarding the stratification frequently focus an individual's financial situation (House & Williams, 2000). Besides, groups are regularly isolated by SES, race, and ethnicity. According to statistical data, socioeconomic factors have an impact on many ethnic and racial minorities. The data shows that: African American kids are three times more prone to live in poverty than Caucasian youngsters. American Indian/Alaska Native, Latino, and Native Hawaiian families are further probable than Caucasian and Asian families to experience hardship. Regarding the education of African Americans...
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...Influence of gender, race and socioeconomic differences on depression Introduction According to Link and Phelan (1995), socioeconomic resources are a major determinant of differences in wellbeing of people. This paper draws heavily on the work of Roxburgh (2009) to extend on the fundamental cause perspective by expanding of the definition of resources, examining how race and gender influence the differences in relations between resources and mental health and modeling the relation between social status, gender and race while taking into account any differences in effect of resources across race and gender. While Roxburgh (2009) used a 2003 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) dataset, this study used the 2011 NHIS dataset. According to fundamental cause perspective, socioeconomic resources (education, income and wealth) enables one to access resources which leads to better health outcomes through its influences on attitudes and behavior. According to role theory, the relation between role occupancy and health stems from access to resources, for example, social support which is derived from occupying socially value roles (Simon, 1995). For example, the primary social roles of marriage and employment confer one psychosocial support, social support and economic resources which lead to differences in welfare of individuals. For the case of employment, economic benefit in terms of income and co-worker social support plus the structured working routines encourage healthy...
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...Current Health Status In July 2013, 40.8 million (2013) people in the United States were African American (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). The Center for Disease and Prevention (CDC) reports that 14.6% of African-Americans are in fair or poor health, as compared with the national average. 48% of African Americans, suffer from a chronic illness that results in premature morbidity and mortality, as compared to 39% of the general population (Brandon & Proctor, 2010, p. 590). This population has a higher prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, hypertension, and diabetes. According to Health Statics of U.S. Adults, African Americans were more likely to have been diagnosed with diabetes compared to non-Hispanic white...
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...the United States of America (79 Years). Furthermore, a healthy nation has a chance to reap the benefits of active and rejuvenated workforce that facilitate her progress. The government has a role to ensure that her citizens meet basic health requirements through the provision of essential services to the public. This paper will discuss health situation among the African Americans for comparison and contrast to the national averages. Current Health Status of African Americans Gee (2012) noted that the African Americans have a substandard health status compared to the national average. For instance, this racial group had the highest death rates in 2009 according to the reports of the Center for Disease Control of the United States of America. The deaths occur following severe heart disease and stroke among this race. Moreover, the adults above 65 years in this race had the highest prevalence of hypertension thus surpassing the average records for the CDC. These health risks and diseases make health status of the African Americans poorer than their counterparts from other races in the USA. How African Americans Define Health Promotion The race defines health promotion as an involvement of programs that are community-based with the view to foster participation in health practices. For instance, there is a need for...
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... Why So Many? Introduction Racism has been a part of history for many years and is a very real problem in the world, not just in the United States. For example, New England colonists fled to a new land, later to be known as America, for religious freedom from European dictators, early settlers of the United States enslaved African-Americans, Adolf Hitler murdered millions of Jewish people, and Middle Eastern Muslim terrorists destroyed the World Trade Towers killing thousands. In the United States, before the Civil rights movement, African-Americans were severely discriminated against. They were not allowed into certain restaurants, they were given restrooms and water fountains that were only used by “colored people”, and they were forced to sit in the back of the bus. Schools and neighborhoods were segregated and interracial relationships were forbidden. Racism was considered socially acceptable and the judicial system upheld arrests and convictions of those that did not conform to the laws. It was impossible for a person of color to receive a fair trial. Today the judicial system is designed to punish criminals for the crime not their minority status, but the truth can still be twisted by racism. Some people argue that the law is flawed and the courts are biased because we are judged by a group of people who are randomly selected to decide the accused criminal’s fate, also known as a “jury of our peers”. Justice is supposed to be blind, but isn’t it impossible for lady justice...
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...blacks had worse access to healthcare than whites by 39%, and Hispanics had worse access to healthcare than non-Hispanic whites by 63% (“Disparities in Healthcare Quality”). In addition, African Americans had “worse care than Whites for 41% of quality measures,” while Hispanics received “worse care than non-Hispanic Whites for 39% of measures” (“Disparities in Healthcare Quality”). A disparity of healthcare access and quality among races clearly exist, and though the Civil Rights Act laws and other legislations have helped equalize opportunities for minority groups, such discrepancies regarding healthcare access and quality can be explained by financial factors, and implicit discrimination involved with socioeconomic status and partisanship among medical...
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...The Effect of African-American Students Socioeconomic Status on how it Affects College Retention and Graduation Rates at Historically Black Colleges and Universities Abstract With Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) graduation rates at the lowest they have been in the last decade I have become concerned. It makes me wonder what is causing this and what needs to be done in order to change this. While reading an article from The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE) I found out that out of the thirty-seven of the four year HBCUs only four of them have a graduation rate over fifty percent. These institutions are Spelman College with a rate of seventy-nine percent, Howard University with a rate of sixty-four percent, Morehouse College with a rate of sixty-one percent, and Hampton University with a rate of fifty-four percent (JBHE, 2012). The purpose of paper is to find out what are some of the factors that are playing a major role in the graduation and retention rates of African-American students at HBCUs and what can be done to help increase these numbers. The Effect Students Socioeconomic Status on High it Affects College Retention and Graduation Rates The first thing that I wanted to look at was the family background of the average African-American student attending a HBCU. I wanted to know how their socioeconomic status directly affected their overall performance, and if the parental educational attainment affected the student’s success while...
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...The disparities between income and economic status between races is staggering and is steadily continuing to rise. For Americans, evidence between the economic/racial differences within our economy lies within and are tied to our socioeconomic resources. Within Metropolitan areas of large cities, residential segregation is quite prominent and with residential segregation, lies a divide in socioeconomic status and the overall average income for those areas. Many studies have been conducted to observe the interplay and effects of this socioeconomic divide between races and collect data on the consequences and patterns in terms of schooling, employment, community resources, crime rates, single parenthood, and health. Socioeconomic status within...
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...Luther King Jr.’s I Have A Dream Speech]”(qtd. in“These Ten…”). Economics played a role in the African American for equality in the schools pre Brown just as it is factoring into the integration of schools today. Richard D. Kahleberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation in Washington D.C. who has studied the impact of segregation in schools stated:...
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...Poverty in African Americans in Inner Cities Branson Ping Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus There are many health disparities in society today. There are disparities between different genders, sexual orientation, location of living, disabilities, and most importantly, socioeconomic status (Healthy People 2020). Of these, this paper will focus on the African-American inner city lower socioeconomic status. Although this population is seen as minuscule when looking at the nation as a whole, the United States government does a less than stellar job at evening the playing field for these individuals. According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2013 the people who identified themselves as African-American mixed race was 15.2% of the United States population and...
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...Massey, a professor of Sociology at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University those of Native American, African-American, and Latin American descent are more likely to have lower incomes than White and Asian Americans. This includes those who currently attend or have graduated elite colleges. These results bring up an important question, why are the majority of different races grouped together in terms of income when each individual has the ability to work for themselves regardless of anything? The American Psychological Association states, “Discrimination and marginalization can serve as a hindrance to upward mobility for ethnic and racial minorities seeking to escape poverty.” Those of Latin American, African American, and Native American descent feel at a disadvantage because of the predominantly white individual's opinions. This in turn negatively affects the minorities socioeconomic futures through the handicap of discrimination even if they do obtain a degree from an elite postsecondary...
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