Health Indicators and Health Disparities

The United States continues to be affected by health disparities and access to treatment, and health outcomes. The healthcare disparities can be traced back to factors such as socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity, and even location. Indicators that result to health disparities include factors such as characteristics of a society, genetic factors, genetics, poor, quality of healthcare offered and environmental variables (Nguyen, 2021). Conditions in people's homes, schools, workplaces, and communities are often cited as examples of social determinants of health. These indicator of health disparities are typically disproportionately experienced by people of color, people with low socioeconomic status, rural areas, persons with cognitive and physical impairments, and those who identify as LGBTQ. For instance, compared to their urban counterparts, people who live in rural locations in the United States have a higher risk of passing away from unexpected accidents, cardiovascular illness, cancer, dementia, and chronic lower respiratory disease.

These health disparities are responsible for a considerable amount of the costs incurred by governments and communities. Annually, health inequalities result in $42 billion in lost productivity and $93 billion in unnecessary healthcare expenditures (Nguyen, 2021). Disparities still exist even after taking into consideration factors such as income, health insurance, and access to treatment. Infant deaths, life expectancy, and the frequency of chronic diseases all show racial and ethnic inequalities that are not explained by other factors, suggesting that these groups have disproportionately poor health outcomes. Black people, for instance, are diagnosed with hypertension at a younger age and at a greater incidence than those of other races. Similarly, Blacks and Hispanics have a higher mortality rate from strokes. Given the complex nature of the relationships between the many factors that contribute to health inequalities, there is no perfect solution policy that might end the problem once and for all. The best approach, according to the experts, is to address the issue from many directions at once, with a focus on policy both within and outside the health care sector. State legislators responsible for enacting policies to reduce health disparities can therefore adopt this approach to reduce health disparities. 

References

Nguyen, K. B., Alise Garcia, Khanh. (2021, May 10). Health Disparities Overview. Retrieved from www.ncsl.org website: https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/health-disparities-overview.aspx#:~:text=Many%20factors%20contribute%20to%20health