factors contributing to health disparities

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Application: Factors Contributing to Health Disparities and Ways to Address Them.

The Healthy People 2020 objectives and the Millennium Goals are two ambitious approaches to addressing the disparities found in vulnerable populations. In this Application Assignment, you will determine factors that contribute to health disparities, how culture impacts treatment in healthcare, and how the goals and objectives plan to reduce or eliminate health disparities.

To prepare for this Application Assignment, review the following (with your Healthy People assigned focus area in mind):
•The definition of culture and articles relating to how culture impacts treatment in healthcare are posted in the Doc Sharing area under Week 3 helpful articles
•Pages 24–41 of your textbook about the objectives that relate to health care in general and, more specifically, health disparities.
•The Millennium Development Goals Report 2009 http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG_Report_2009_ENG.pdf
•Healthy People 2020: What Are Its Goals? http://healthypeople.gov/2020/

?Focus your attention on “Overarching Goal #2: Achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and improve the health of all groups.”

To complete this Application Assignment, write a 3- to 4-page paper that addresses the following questions.
•What socio-ecological factors contribute to the existence of health disparities? (Examples include socioeconomics and education).
•How might one’s culture serve as a barrier to equal treatment when it comes to healthcare? Give an example. (*Note: Please remember that culture is not skin color).
•Give an example or examples of how populations experience unequal treatment and disparity in healthcare. Provide some statistics to help illustrate this point from the CDC, the textbook, your Resources this week, or another reliable source.
•How do the health-related Millennium Development Goals address such health disparities?
•Discuss 2 to 3 Healthy People 2020 objectives that provide a framework for addressing health disparities, based on your Healthy People assigned focus area.

Support your answers with statistical information about your Healthy People assigned focus area. The following are a few websites that provide a wealth of data regarding specific populations and Healthy People assigned focus area:
•State Health Facts, Kaiser Family Foundation www.statehealthfacts.org
•Statistical Information System, World Health Organization http://www.who.int/whosis/en/
•Interactive Map: Maps: The Global Picture http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/atlas/us.html

Be sure to support your work with specific citations from this week’s Learning Resources and additional scholarly sources as appropriate. Refer to the Essential Guide to APA Style for Walden Students to ensure that your in-text citations and reference list are correct. Also, since this is your only application, you may want to submit this to a Walden Writing Center tutor first as well as run it through Turnitin.com prior to submission. Other helpful resources include:

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•Citations: http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/apa/citations/intextparenthetical
•Reference List: http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/apa/references
•”Gold Star” Application Example
Jody Early. GOLDSTAR APPLICATION EXAMPLE. Used by permission of Jody Early.
•Organizing Your Week 3 Application Paper. Used by permission of Shelley Armstrong.
Health disparities are the inequalities which occur in the giving of healthcare. (Rose, 2013, Pg 76) These inequalities can be associated to a number of reasons and there are a number of methods formulated to reduce them. The following paperwork focuses on these factors with the area of focus being HIV.
Socio-ecological factors contributing to the existence of health disparities
Education has being one of the major socio-ecological factors that has contributed to health disparities over the years. HIV/AIDS prevalence has been high in regions where there has been little effort in the raising of awareness concerning HIV. The awareness is meant to educate people on how to practice safe measures that will prevent the spread of HIV such as practicing safe sex. In Sub-Saharan Africa, there has been minimal effort when it comes to raising such awareness and this is the reason why HIV prevalence in the region is high that is 4.7%. This is different from regions such as North America where the prevalence is at 0.2% and Western and Central Europe where the prevalence is at 0.2%. This is because the latter stated regions have education programmes that are meant to raise awareness in HIV related issues.
Policies and legislations enacted by the governing bodies of different regions have also played a major role in contributing to the existence of health disparities. Countries such as the USA have had legislations that criminalize potential HIV exposure. As of 2011, a total of 67 such legislations had been enacted in 33 states such as New York and San Francisco. In these states, there has been a significant reduction in the level of HIV prevalence unlike in states that have not enacted such legislations.
The socioeconomic status of an individual creates the existence of health disparities. Those individuals from the high and middle socioeconomic suffering from HIV are able to access better treatment in terms of drugs and access better nutritional diets that help them in staying healthy and reducing HIV health-related complications. Statistics have shown that high HIV mortality and prevalence is associated with regions that have a high number of people living in the low socioeconomic status and this is basically because such people are not able to access better treatment compared to those from the high and low socioeconomic status. A country like India for example has associated most of its HIV-related deaths and to poverty levels. In 2012, a study conducted indicated that India had 21.9% of its population living in the low socioeconomic status level and it’s the same year that highest HIV-related deaths (that is 172,000 deaths) were reported. (Turnock, 2014, Pg33)
How one’s culture might serve as a barrier to equal treatment in healthcare
Culture consists of a set of beliefs that are used as guidance to certain issues. Culture can serve as a barrier to equal treatment. For example, some individuals believe that when they fall sick, they should not use medicine but rather seek spiritual interventions through prayers from their religious leaders since they believe that prayers is the only means of treatment. Such individuals when diagnosed with diseases such as HIV will thus not be subjected to the conventional treatment that a different individual would be subjected to and thus will be at a high risk of HIV related complications. In such a scenario we thus see how culture serves as a barrier to equal treatment. (Alarco´n, 2013, pg 10)
How populations experience unequal treatment and disparity in healthcare
Populations may experience unequal treatment and disparity on the basis of gender. According to the Center for Disease Control and prevention, an approximated 88% of women living with HIV are diagnosed but only 33% have been subjected to treatment. At the end of 2011, 23% of HIV positive people in the USA were women. Only 45% of this women population was under healthcare while only 32% had obtained viral suppression.
In some regions especially the Sub-Saharan region, gender inequality which mostly roots from the cultural beliefs of people from that region has limited women’s access to HIV treatment such as antiretroviral therapy. In such regions women face stigmatization and this was one of the main reasons that at the end of 2012 it was reported that in this region, the percentage of HIV positive women aged between 15 and 24 was twice as that of men within the same age bracket. (Kuhlmann, Annandale & Palgrave Connect (Online service), 2012, pg 157)
The health-related Millennium Development Goals
The third goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) is to promote gender equality and empower women. This is meant to address the unequal treatment and disparities in healthcare on the basis of gender. This is to be achieved through ensuring that women receive quality education and availing more job opportunities to them which are explained as being the main tools of development that will help in promoting equal healthcare treatment and eradicating disparities. The MDG also suggests that women should be given leadership positions in society as this will help them enact legislations which will promote equal treatment in women and eradicate health disparity.
Healthy people 2020 objectives that provide a framework for addressing health disparities
One of the main objectives of the Healthy people 2020 is to avail access to health services. One of the factors identified that contributes to health disparities was poverty. Individuals from the low socioeconomic status level are not able to acquire standard treatment such as antiretroviral therapy. This is the main reason why more than 50% of the reported cases of HIV are usually from low and middle-income countries. The access to these health services is made available through initiation of medical insurances that will ensure that the cost of treatment in such individuals is catered for at least by more than half.
Another objective of healthy people 2020 is to initiate educational and community based programmes. This will greatly help in reducing health disparities in HIV related issues. It was identified that some of the regions with high HIV prevalence is as a result of lack of awareness. These programmes will help raise awareness in issues such methods of preventing HIV and minimizing HIV-related health complications.