LATINO HEALTH DISPARITIES

Latino Health Disparities

Latino Health Disparities

Introduction

There are varying definitions of health disparities, or healthcare inequality, within the healthcare community. Generally, a health disparity is defined as a substantial difference in health between one population and another. Therefore, all the issues related to health disparities will be discussed in detail (Boulware, 2003).

Causes

There are several factors that contribute to health disparities. Most notably, these disparities are attributed by the CDC to result from the “complex interaction among genetic variations, environmental factors, and specific health behaviors.” Specific factors affecting such disparities include personal, socioeconomic, and environmental characteristics or social determinants; access to healthcare system delivery; and quality of healthcare received. The disparities may arise from increased risk of disease from occupational exposure or from underlying genetic, ethnic, or familial factors as well.

Examples include evidence that low-income and racial and ethnic minorities are affected by disparities in rates of insurance, lack of access to a primary care provider and ineffective or miscommunication with a healthcare provider. Due to these factors, it is more difficult for certain populations to achieve health compared to others. The well-being of these groups is significantly associated with their socioeconomic status and race. For example, low-income Americans and racial and ethnic minorities have relatively limited access to care and also higher rates of disease, especially obesity, cancer, diabetes, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The CDC has found the most common and prevalent diseases correlated to health disparities within each of these particular groups (Cooper, 1999).

Measurement of Socioeconomic Status

The second exogenous variable in the model is socioeconomic factors. No matter how they measure socioeconomic status (SES), researchers find when an individual's SES will be lower; the mental and physical health will be much poorer. In USA, Blacks, as a group, have lower incomes, and less education than Whites. Thus, many researchers view SES as a most important reason of Black-White health differences. According to the model, SES is associated with disparities in health literacy/health behaviors, which concerns:

Knowledge of, and attitudes about, appropriate health care activities, and/or

Engaging in these activities. SES also directly affects people's access to health care and the quality of health care they receive.

Finally, SES is associated with difficult social environments, which include things such as chronic exposure to difficult living conditions, environmental hazards and other acute and chronic stressors that may negatively affect people's health (Dovidio, 2008).

Latinos Community and Health Disparity

Latinos suffer from wide ranging health disparities in comparison to non-Hispanic whites. While we know these disparities are caused by a combination of environmental and genetic factors, we don't know to what degree each are involved for many conditions disproportionately affecting Latinos. That's where modern genomics comes into play.

The diseases associated with health disparities are not explained by current biologic and genetic characteristic information about racial and ethnic minorities, but are believed to be a result of varying healthcare factors. Due to this, there are many public, private, nationwide, and statewide projects that are looking to reform and to prevent health disparities so that ...