In an area such as medicine, there are disparities that exist among certain groups of people throughout this country as well as other countries and the world as a whole. In order to best understand the disparities that exist around the world, I think it's important to first understand some of the disparities that exist here in the United States. There are incredible differences between those with access to health insurance and exceptional health care and those who can't afford or are denied by health insurance companies. While many people associate these disparities with socioeconomic class, there are disparities that exist due to race, ethnicity, and gender, among many other things.
The first important point to make is to define the differences that exist between races, classes, and genders as far as health and medicine, and to specifically define what is considered a "disparity." A health disparity, as defined in a Fact Sheet published by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, is a difference that exists in the prevalence, affects, and death related to certain diseases and health issues. This definition encompasses differences that exist in the treatment and diagnoses that patients receive as a result of varying gender, race, and class. Since there are so many health disparities that exist in the United States, I will be choosing one example that varies with gender, one with race, and one with socioeconomic class in order to highlight the categories of differences that exist.
First, I will focus on the differences that exist in health and medicine because of race and ethnicity. One of the major diseases that seems to differ among people of different races is cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute at NIH, African Americans have the highest rate of and fatalities from cancers, as cited in the fact sheet linked in the above paragraph. The fact sheet tries to outline reasons for the disparities that exist, and for the most part, I think that many of them are accurate and probably contribute a great deal to the differences that exist in cancer among African Americans. Specifically, the fact sheet points to lack of participation in cancer prevention initiatives by minorities, delayed diagnoses of minorities due to lack of insurance, differences in the outcomes of cancer treatment. All of these factors, among others, contribute to the disparities that exist between races, specifically involving African Americans and cancer.
Disparities in medicine and health care also exist due to gender. One of the main areas that professionals see health differences in between men and women is in the area of life expectancy. In some countries around the world, the gap between men and women can be up to 13 years, as it is in Russia according to an article published in the Population Reference Bureau. In the United States, the gap is smaller as it is in many other countries, but in all of the countries mentioned, women have higher life expectancies than men. As I've learned from this article and from other courses that I've had, women are more likely to visit the doctor and have short-term health issues, but men are more likely to die from an illness at an earlier age. It is important to recognize the difference between this disparity and the one listed in the above paragraph. This disparity may be partly due to hormones and biological factors, but much of it exists due to behavioral differences. Women are generally more likely to admit needing to visit the doctor and are also more likely to take medications and stick to treatment plans than men.
The last disparity I will discuss in the United States is based on Socioeconomic class. Rather than focus on a specific illness, I will be discussing the disparities that exist based on class in a more general way. While there are rarely disparities that exist because of low socioeconomic class, but rather that the low socioeconomic class affects the ability of individuals to get proper treatment for diseases that are treatable in most cases. Lack of insurance is a major problem facing healthcare today, and low income families don't have access to insurance and are often unable to visit doctors. When patients don't obtain treatment for mostly harmless illnesses, they can progress into deadly or much more serious diseases that are then even more difficult and expensive to treat.
In the next blog post, I will focus on health and medical treatment differences that exist based on race, gender, age, and class in other nations of the world.
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