Factors Influencing Health Outcomes On Health - 2352 Words

Factors Influencing Health There is overwhelming evidence that race and socioeconomic status play an influential role in determining health outcomes. Detangling of the web of causation can be difficult, as many demographic variables are correlated (e.g. Hispanics and African Americans are disproportionately impoverished). Nonetheless, it is clear on a number of health measures that minorities and the poor face worse results than their counterparts. This is true even after taking into account variances in genetic diseases. African Americans have higher infant mortality and a lower life expectancy than whites of the same economic and educational status (Braveman, Cubbin, Ergerter, Williams, Pamuk, 2010). The poor a lower quality†¦show more content†¦Accessibility to health care is another factor that leads to health inequalities. As mentioned above, the poor are less likely to have access to health care. According to Braveman et al. (2010), there is also a great deal of evid ence that, after accounting for socioeconomic status, minorities receive â€Å"fewer medical procedures and poorer quality medical care than whites†. It also seems that the biggest difference between minorities and whites concerns disease progression, rather than incidence rate (Braveman et. al, 2010). Despite all this, there is reason to believe that health inequalities between racial groups has been decreasing over time. Between 2003 and 2013, the gap in life expectancy between blacks and white decreased 2.3 years (Kochanek, Anderson, Arias, 2015). Unfortunately, some of the decrease may not just be due to gains made by minorities. In a much discussed recent study, it was found that the morbidity and death rate for middle-aged non-Hispanic whites was rising (Case Deaton, 2015). The death rate increase was largely driven by increases in alcohol and drug poisonings, as well as suicides. This result went against historic trends, was not seen in Hispanics and Blacks (both of whom saw a decrease) and was unique amongst the seven industrialized nations studied. In addition, there were declines in self-reported mental and physical health, but increases in psychological