Health Disparities and Culturally Competent Care

• July 2, 2020
• Tony Guo
• no comments

Health Disparities and Culturally Competent Care

Determinants of Health

• This are factors that influence the health of an individual or groups and help explain why some people experience poorer health than others

Health Status

• Health of a person or a community
  • Individual- sum of their current health problem plus their coping resources like family and financial resources.
  • Community- Includes birth and death rates, life expectancy, access to care, and morbidity and mortality rates related to disease and injuries respectively

Health Disparities and Health Equity

• Factors and conditions leading to health disparities
  • Ethnicity and race
    • Conditions are subjective
    • Clients are asked to identify their own ethnicity and race for the purpose of health data collection
    • Collection of health data based on self-reported ethnic and race categories is important for research, to inform policy, and to understand and eliminate disparities.
  • Place
    • Where a person is born, grows, lives, works, and ages
    • This affects the use of health services, health status, and health behaviors.
  • Income, education, or occupation
    • People of lower income, education, or occupational status experience worse health, and die at a younger age than those who are more affluent.
    • Patients who lack knowledge are at risk.
  • Health literacy
    • Degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.
  • Gender & Age
    • Adult women use health care services more than men like women may not receive the same quality of care
    • Older adults are at risk for experiencing health disparities in the number of diagnostic tests performed and aggressiveness of treatments use
  • Sexual orientation
    • Main concern is LGBT
  • Health care provider attitudes
    • Stereotyping
    • Prejudice
    • Discrimination
    • Bias