Multiple health experts are currently studying different populations and the health disparities within those populations. Essentially, health disparities are when a certain population of people are prone to getting a certain disease because of factors related to their race, ethnicity, and sex. Today, I want to talk about racial disparities that are caused because of economic inequality in America. It’s no secret that in the United States there are three different classes of people: the rich, middle class, and the poor.
Now, although each of these classes experience health issues of their own, experts have noticed that certain diseases tend to appear in certain races more than others because of their class. And that’s mainly because a lot of lower income people cannot afford the same health care as rich people. For example, I want to bring attention to the fact that hypertension and diabetes is 2 to 3 times higher in African-Americans than in it is white Americans. The majority of African-Americans who have diabetes tend to have either low income or no income at all. Salt, alcohol consumption, and stress are factors that contribute to hypertension. Therefore, it’s no surprise that in lower income communities hypertension is a problem. When you don’t have a lot of money, you can’t afford to buy healthy groceries. With the little money they do have, it’s usually used to purchase food from fast food places which causes a high salt and trans fat intake.
Then, alcohol is essentially the number one depressant, so it doesn’t help that it can be found on basically every corner in lower income communities. Furthermore, for all the reasons why you see hypertension in lower income people, there are 10 more reasons why you don’t see it in wealthy communities. The main reason being they have the funds to have the proper aid, eat right, and live a less stressed life. In the years to come, I don’t see these health disparities being changed…unless someone fixes the economic gap. The the way the United States is going, it will be a long time from now. It is imperative for experts to bring awareness to these communities by educating, informing, and supplying.
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