BLACK WOMEN AND THEIR HEALTHCARE NEEDS

Black Women and Their Healthcare Needs: Issues & Recommendations



Black Women and Their Healthcare Needs: Issues & Recommendations

Introduction

While healthcare in the United States has exhibited remarkable improvements in the past half century, evidence continues to suggest that Black women suffer increasing disparities in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and overall negative health outcomes in comparison with white American women. Naidoo (2009) mentions African Americans have the highest asthma attack rates of all ethnic groups and are three times more likely than whites to be hospitalized for asthma. Black children are five times more likely than white children to have lead poisoning, which is associated with lowered IQ, learning disabilities, and behavioral problems.

January (2004) mentions the prevalence of diabetes is 70 percent higher among African Americans as compared to white Americans. The death rate among black women with lupus rose by 70 percent from 1979 to 1998. Black women are eight times more likely than white American women to be struck by sarcoidosis, a chronic disease that interferes with the functioning of vital organs, especially the lungs. Blacks are more likely to get cancer and to die from the disease than other racial and ethnic groups (January, 2004). Compared to white men, black men are 1.5 times more likely to develop prostate cancer and two to three times more likely to die of the disease. This paper reviews the healthcare needs of Black women and presents recommendations for the same in a concise and comprehensive way.

Discussion

Cameron (2009) mentions that the homeless population in the United States has a higher incidence and prevalence of both acute and chronic medical conditions compared with the general (non-homeless) population. For some homeless persons, ill health can be a precipitating factor of homelessness. For others, however, homelessness itself generates illness because of the constant exposure to the weather, crowded shelters, unsanitary living conditions, lack of sleep, poor nutrition, adverse lifestyle practices, and lack of health care (Cameron, 2009). There are many medical conditions that are common among homeless individuals, including substance abuse, acute infections, upper respiratory problems, musculoskeletal problems, hypertension, mental illness, dermatologic disease, gastrointestinal ailments, ophthalmologic disease, dental disease, and trauma. However, mental illness, substance abuse, and musculoskeletal problems are among the most prevalent disease conditions found in the general homeless population in the United States. With limited access to health care services, these health problems often go untreated or treatment is delayed (Cameron, 2009). Homeless individuals, therefore, are caught in a cycle that requires medical care earlier but prevents access until more costly care is required.

Access to health services by homeless individuals is limited by a few key barriers to care—financial, bureaucratic, programmatic, and personal. Financial barriers to care include lack of health insurance, limited health care benefits, and limited (or lack of) income. Bureaucratic barriers to care include restrictive eligibility criteria for health care benefits, arduous registration procedures, long waits at clinics, inflexible clinic scheduling, restricted clinic hours, and lack of transportation to clinics (Cameron, ...