Diabetes in African Americans: Disparities and Health Literacy
This paper examines the elevated prevalence of type II diabetes among African-American adults, who are twice as likely as Caucasians to develop the condition. It surveys traditional healing methods and folklore practices — including prayer, spirituality, dreams, and the power of words — that African-Americans use to cope with chronic illness. The paper then analyzes how health literacy affects disease self-management, drawing on research linking greater diabetes knowledge to better dietary, exercise, and foot-care outcomes. Finally, it considers structural barriers to care, including the role of the Affordable Care Act in reducing health disparities by expanding insurance access and enabling more consistent medical treatment.
- Introduction: African Americans face disproportionately high type II diabetes rates
- Traditional Healing Methods and Folklore Practices: Prayer, spirituality, dreams, and words as healing tools
- Health Literacy and Diabetes Self-Management: Knowledge and self-efficacy improve diabetic care outcomes
- Decreasing the Health Disparity: Insurance access and the Affordable Care Act reduce gaps
- Conclusion: Education plus affordable care needed to manage diabetes
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- Integrates cultural and biomedical perspectives, showing how folk beliefs and modern medicine intersect in diabetes management for African-American adults.
- Grounds each claim in peer-reviewed sources, moving logically from epidemiological data to cultural practices to structural healthcare barriers.
- Maintains a constructive tone by framing disparities as addressable through education, policy, and culturally sensitive care rather than focusing solely on deficits.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper models synthesis across disciplines: it draws on public health epidemiology, cultural anthropology, and health policy research to build a multidimensional argument. Rather than treating diabetes as purely a biomedical issue, it weaves together CDC statistics, qualitative cultural research (Parks, 2007), and clinical education studies (McCleary-Jones, 2011) into a coherent explanation of why disparities persist and how they can be reduced.
Structure breakdown
The paper follows a classic problem-analysis-solution structure across five sections. The introduction establishes the epidemiological problem and previews three analytical threads. The second and third sections analyze cultural and educational factors respectively, each supported by dedicated sources. The fourth section shifts to policy solutions, centering the Affordable Care Act. The conclusion synthesizes all threads and reinforces the paper's central argument that information alone is insufficient without access to affordable care.
Introduction
Diabetes is a serious public health issue that disproportionately affects the African-American adult population. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African Americans are twice as likely to have type II diabetes as Caucasians (Diabetes, 2011). This is highly significant, given that 90 to 95% of new diabetes cases each year are type II (Diabetes, 2011). Several factors contribute to these cases, including genetics. Additionally, people can develop type II diabetes through obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, advancing age, and poor eating habits. In order to thoroughly address the issue, it is important to examine what African Americans know — and do not know — about diabetes, and how they handle the disease if they develop it or are told they are at risk. Many have pre-diabetes and can avoid the disease if they make conscientious choices (Agurs-Collins et al., 1997). While not every African-American adult with pre-diabetes will go on to develop type II diabetes, it is important that they understand how to lower their risk and what they can do to maintain their health.
This paper addresses the traditional healing methods and folklore practices used by African Americans, some of which are employed to treat or manage diabetes. Additionally, health literacy must be considered. The more people know about health, the healthier they tend to be. African Americans who are proactive about their health and who work to expand their knowledge are more likely to avoid type II diabetes and to keep it under control if they do develop it (Agurs-Collins et al., 1997). Reducing health disparities becomes critically important in this context, because African Americans need good healthcare knowledge but also need access to proper treatment that they can afford from providers they trust. Without all of these elements, their risk for diabetes will remain elevated.
References
Agurs-Collins, T. D., Kumanyika, S. K., Ten Have, T. R., & Adams-Campbell, L. L. (1997). A randomized controlled trial of weight reduction and exercise for diabetes management in older African-American subjects. Diabetes Care, 20(10), 1503–1511.
Baptiste-Roberts, K., Gary, T. L., Beckles, G. L. A., Gregg, E. W., Owens, M., Porterfield, D., & Engelgau, M. M. (2007). Family history of diabetes, awareness of risk factors, and health behaviors among African Americans. American Journal of Public Health, 97(5), 907–912.
Diabetes. (2011). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/publications/aag/ddt.htm.
McCleary-Jones, V. (2011). Health literacy and its association with diabetes knowledge, self-efficacy and disease self-management among African Americans with diabetes mellitus. The ABNF Journal, 25–32.
Parks, F. M. (2007). Working with narratives: Coping strategies in African-American folk beliefs and traditional healing practices. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 15(1), 135–147.
Vaccaro, J. A., & Huffman, F. G. (2012). Reducing health disparities: Medical advice received for minorities with diabetes. Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, 389–417.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.