Disparity in Health Issues in the United States

The group chosen for this project consists of African American women and one of the major health issues that they face is obesity. African American women who suffer from obesity can range in place and demographic. 56% of African American women are currently obese or overweight (State of Obesity, 2018). The numbers also indicate a stark disparity between whites and blacks regarding obesity: “Nationally, in 2011 to 2012, 20.5 percent of African American girls were obese compared with 15.6 percent of White girls” (State of Obesity, 2018). In many cases, however, class does serve as an indicator of the risk of obesity for many African American women as “lower-incomes and poverty correlate strongly with an increase in obesity, since less nutritious, calorie-dense foods are often less expensive than healthier foods.  African American families have earned $1 for every $2 earned by White families for the past 30 years” (State of Obesity, 2018). As a result African American women who suffer from obesity are also at a greater risk of having diabetes, cardiac arrest, heart disease, and other health issues (Banerjee, Herring, Hurley et al., 2018).
African American culture is distinct from the other American cultures in the U.S. African Americans have their own cultural identity that is informed by a history of slavery, racism, a fight for equal rights, and the obtaining of equality not fully achieved until the 20th century, though African Americans have been in the country for centuries. Their culture is one that infused by a variety of religious backgrounds, from Protestant Christian to Catholic to Muslim. African Americans tend to vote Democrat as this political party has often aimed to represent this class of people in the past; however, with politics in a current state of upheaval since the election of Donald Trump, African Americans are divided as is the rest of the American population.
Stressors for this population include socio-economic factors such as low-income neighborhoods, poverty, crime, drugs, limited access to health care, limited representation in government, and limited economic support in terms of access to upward mobility options. Some studies have shown that African American women who suffer from obesity find treatment through faith-based initiatives that empower them to take ownership of their health issues and provide them with the support to make life-changing choices regarding diet and exercise (Yanek, Becker, Moy et al., 2016).
Healthcare disparities still exist for African American women in spite of the passage of the Affordable Care Act and its improvement of access to care for millions of Americans. As breast cancer screenings are another area in which there is disparity between whites and blacks, this one example serves as another illustration of how there is considerable health care disparity between white women and African American women (Walcott, Dunn, DeSheilds et al., 2014).
Strategies for eliminating disparities include increasing health literacy among African American women patients by providing literature on obesity, lifestyle changes, diet and exercise related information, and education on how obesity has been linked to a number of health issues. Modell, Mathew and Greenberg (2015) assert that there is a significant lack of activism on the part of health care practitioners regarding the disparity between low-level income patients receiving quality care and high-level income patients receiving quality care. Those who can afford health care tend to receive better care and as a result many African American women do not receive the type of preventive medicine that can help them fight issues like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

References
Banerjee, E. S., Herring, S. J., Hurley, K. E., Puskarz, K., Yebernetsky, K., & LaNoue,
M. (2018). Overcoming obesity: a mixed methods study of the impact of Primary care physician counseling on low-income African American women who successfully lost weight. American Journal of Health Promotion, 32(2), 374-380.
Modell, S., Mathew, E., Greenberg, S. (2015). Status Report: Oncogenomic Testing in
the Wake of Health Care Reform. Annals of Public Health and Research, 2(3), 1022.
State of Obesity. (2018). Current status. Retrieved from
https://stateofobesity.org/disparities/blacks/
Walcott, F.L., Dunn, B.K., DeSheilds, M., & Baquet, C. (2014). The affordable care act
and genetic testing for inheritable cancer syndromes: Impact on high risk underserved minorities. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 15, 46-62.
Yanek, L. R., Becker, D. M., Moy, T. F., Gittelsohn, J., & Koffman, D. M. (2016).
Project Joy: faith based cardiovascular health promotion for African American women. Public Health Reports, 116(1), 68-81.