Conceptualizing Community Reply to Michael

REPLY TO MICHAEL

Reply to Michael Regarding Conceptualizing Community

Healthcare access is the core determinant of neighborhood health. The greater the healthcare service utilization, the greater the possibility of improved health outcomes for people of all ages. Research does not explicitly explore neighborhood health outcomes regarding healthcare access; however, it has now been scrutinized that supply, demand, and need to play integral roles in the healthcare utilization model of the neighborhood (Mohnen, Schneider & Droomers, 2019). The psychological and physical needs should be fulfilled to accomplish the healthcare goals of a society, which is a major responsibility of local authorities and the national government. It also depends on the number of medical facilities and clinics in proximity, transportation needed to reach them, costs of fuel, etc. (Mohnen, Schneider & Droomers, 2019). They could be deemed community-level enabling factors that depict a lack of the facilities, causing an absence of healthcare access. Also, the degree of urbanization contributes to resource availability, for which access would be better in response to socioeconomic status, without discrimination of ethnic composition of the neighborhood population (Mohnen, Schneider & Droomers, 2019).

Household food insecurity is another factor that is a source of neighborhood health. With the better provision of healthy food and complete nutrients that the human body requires, there is a high likelihood that elevated levels of health would be observed in children, adults, and the old generation in a neighborhood. However, there is little data regarding socioeconomic status, food availability for a household, and health outcomes; still, the data exists. A study indicated that parents’ self-reported measures of food insecurity were different from what their children in the same house mentioned, as parents thought that a negative image would be portrayed that they could not provide for their children (Denney, Kimbro & Sharp, 2018).

Bible asks for caring about others, even for the enemy when he is hungry. “If your enemy hungers, give him food to eat; and if he thirsts, give him water to drink”- Proverbs 25:21 (Chery, 2022).