A light on health disparities

April has been designated as National Minority Health Month by congressional resolution to promote educational efforts on the health problems currently facing minorities and other health disparity populations.

This resolution proposed the president should issue “a proclamation recognizing the immediate need to reduce health disparities in the United States and encouraging all health organizations and Americans to conduct appropriate programs and activities to promote healthfulness in minority and other health disparity communities.”

This year’s Minority Health Month theme is “Prevention is Power: Taking Action for Health Equity.”

Deputy Assistant for Minority Health, Dr. J. Nadine Gracia said, “This theme reflects the critical connection between prevention efforts and reducing health disparities and embodies a unifying message to empower the communities we serve.”

The Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act defined health disparities as “a significant disparity in the overall rate of disease incidence, prevalence, morbidity, mortality or survival rates in the population as compared to the health status of the general population.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, despite the fact that health indicators such as life expectancy and infant mortality have improved for most Americans, some minorities experience a disproportionate burden of preventable disease, death and disability compared with non-minorities.

The state of Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has documented several reasons relating directly to the health care system which they say have directly added to minority health disparities:

• Many people from minority groups live in areas where there are fewer doctors or other health providers.

• Many doctors are not skilled in communicating with people from different racial/ethnic backgrounds.

• Most doctors assume that people from minority groups do not have enough insurance or money to pay for the care they get.

• Most doctors do not think that people from minority groups do enough to take care of their own health.

• Most doctors are white and many do not understand the health care needs and how to treat the illnesses of people from minority groups.

The CDC confirms in general, minorities have high rates of elevated cholesterol, hypertension, cigarette smoking, obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Other behavioral, environmental and occupational risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, such as sleep problems are also common among minorities. These risk factors all contribute to excess illness and death. Heart failure is also listed as another significant minority health problem. Health disparities may result from variations in social, cultural, behavioral, biologic, genetic and environmental factors among population subgroups and geographic locations.

According to the HHS end goals of these priorities are to:

• Transform health care in concert with the changes occurring via the Affordable Care Act

• Strengthen the nation’s Health and Human Services infrastructure and workforce,

• Advance the health, safety and wellbeing of the American people,

• Advance scientific knowledge and innovation, and

• Increase the efficiency, transparency and accountability of HHS programs.

The HHS Action Plan concludes:

“Through the release of this Action Plan, the department commits to the vision of a nation free from disparities in health and health care for racial and ethnic minority populations.”