Disparities in Health Care among African Americans

Abstract

Many variables determine the quality of health care received by persons of color in the United States. Differences in disease detection, diagnosis, and management of health care outcomes in African Americans date back to slavery. There are race differences, gender differences, and epidemiological differences in the treatment of African Americans in our health care system. Diseases such as prostate and colorectal cancer, infant mortality, chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes all are very high among African Americans as compared to white Americans. The high rate of infectious diseases like Pneumonia and AIDS are consistently higher among African Americans. Contributing factors for these occurrences are a lack of regular sources for Primary care, social, financial, cultural, insurance related and linguistic barriers that increases the burden of disease and unresolved disparities in the U.S. healthcare system. Elimination of these healthcare disparities must take place in order to better manage healthcare and provide unbiased equal care and quality of life to all Americans. This article examines factors leading to healthcare disparities and identifies essential tasks to improve the quality of care received by African Americans and other racial minority groups.