Race Masks Racial Health Disparities

 

You have been asked to watch the video of Jaffe giving a speech at a psychological convention. The video is available through the link on this course page.

Please reply below with the following comments:

-In no more than a few sentences, please describe what you believe health disparities are. Use the topics covered in the video clip.
-Then, in another sentence or two, describe you think psychologists can do to reduce racial health disparities in the United States.

This discussion assignment is DUE by MONDAY February 16, 2015.

51 thoughts on “Race Masks Racial Health Disparities

  1. Jenn

    In my opinion health disparities are the inequalities between population groups. The populations groups often categorized by race, ethnicity, gender, age and even socio-economic positions. Although, many researches have been done between African Americans and non-Hispanic white population, the outcomes have nothing to do with race but rather with the environment, the education and the lack of resources available to these populations.

    Psychologists can reduce racial health disparities by becoming more accessible. Perhaps hiring liaisons to be the link between the underprivileged (disadvantaged groups) and them, having them sit in places or communities where they can educate people on services provided to them for free, low cost or within their health plans. The APA can also mandate psychologist to take up pro-bono cases and/or provide services for low cost for the uninsured community, being that alot of disparities are based on lack of resources.

    Reply
    1. AAlmond Post author

      Good thoughts Jenn, and it sounds like you clearly got the message behind Jaffe’s talk. You are a bit early on the assignment, which is always good 🙂 🙂 I just ask that you circle around and come back around the 16th of Feb. and maybe respond to this comment in light of what will have been discussed in class. Keep up the good work!

      Reply
  2. jeanmariee94

    Health disparities are differences between racial groups and their wellness. Ultimately, data that determines health disparities between different racial groups fuel racism and discrimination. The concept of race is man made, and usually is based off of what you look like. Your appearance gives way to social inequalities. It is said that if you have a better education or you make more money, you will live longer. But perhaps, that is because disadvantaged racial groups deal with more stress and are not privies to such privileges. The chronic stress processes shows that there is a group of small differences that accumulate over the life course to produce observed differences in adult hood and older ages among different race and ethnic groups. Reasons for this are genes, discriminations and accumulated treatment differences, cultural factors, and social psychological factors. Maybe this is why health disparities exist.
    Psychologists can reduce racial health disparities by erasing these biases. For example, just because you are African American does not mean you will die on average 7 years earlier than whites. Also, while conducting research, psychologists should not ask for what race a person is, because who is to say that is their true race? The concept of race has become an external concept, when it really has to do with your place of origin.

    Reply
  3. Isaac D. O

    Health Disparity is health difference that is linked with race. It is a socially constructed ideals which reflect unfair treatment in terms of what happens to individuals. The human population is categorize into black community ( disadavntage group) and Non-Hispanic white (advantage group). there is a notion that each group is identified with certain type of illness that has no scientific basis. Health issues such as smoking, obesity, diabetes, heart attack, stroke and etc are mostly identify with black whiles mental health disorders, chronic stressors etc are among the white. In the nutshell white life longer on an average of 7 years than blacks.
    But in the speech I realized that there are more contributing health factors than just racial health disparity.
    These are factors are poor health behavior, physical health disorders, environmental factors, stressors,chronic activation of HPA Axis and psychiatric health disorders. All human population can be affected by these factors therefore racial health disparity is just a masquerade

    I think Psychologist can reduce racial health disparity by creating awareness through conducting effective education and information forums to inform and educate people about scientifically proven health treats like environmental factors and also free peoples mind by condemning racial health disparity.
    Also, Psychologists can help to change some of the questions normally ask on application forms and other issues relating to race.

    Reply
  4. Isaac D. O

    Health Disparity is health difference that is linked with race. It is a socially constructed ideals which reflect unfair treatment in terms of what happens to individuals. The human population is categorize into black community ( disadavntage group) and Non-Hispanic white (advantage group). there is a notion that each group is identified with certain type of illness that has no scientific basis. Health issues such as smoking, obesity, diabetes, heart attack, stroke and etc are mostly identify with black whiles mental health disorders, chronic stressors etc are among the white. In the nutshell white life longer on an average of 7 years than blacks.
    But in the speech I realized that there are more contributing health factors than just racial health disparity.
    These are factors are poor health behavior, physical health disorders, environmental factors, stressors,chronic activation of HPA Axis and psychiatric health disorders. All human population can be affected by these factors therefore racial health disparity is just a masquerade

    I think Psychologist can reduce racial health disparity by creating awareness through conducting effective education and information forums to inform and educate people about scientifically proven health treats like environmental factors and also free peoples mind by condemning racial health disparity.
    Also, Psychologists can help to change some of the questions normally ask on application forms and other issues relating to race.

    Reply
  5. Chander Raj

    Health Disparity are health differences between different racial groups. The main racial groups talked about in the video are African American and Non-Hispanics. One thing is certain that the differences between health problems found between these two groups have nothing to do with race, but in fact has to do with their environment.
    Psychologists can help reduce racial health disparities in the United States. by educating the uneducated about how to cope with stress and other factor that can be harmful to their health in the long run. Also questions at meetings like “what is your ethnic background” questions can be changed into “what type of environment do you live in” or “which area have you spent most of your life living in”.

    Reply
  6. matty65

    Finally! Some real research. Dr. Jackson’s research answers some plaguing questions for me and poses some new ones. Some years ago my personal physician cited to me the “Slavery Hypothesis” as an explanation of why hypertension is of high prevalence in the African American community. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1694537/pdf/amjph00549-0099.pdf) As this information was coming from a medical doctor and seemed somewhat logical, I took it to be factual. I had been duped into believing that myself as well as most Americans of African descent we genetically predisposed to hypertension and there was nothing that I could do about it. If you combine this theory with the embedded idea that diseases such as diabetes and hypertension run in families, it all seemed to make perfect sense. So much so that, the “Slavery Hypothesis” could (and still is by some) be regarded as an answer to, “why African Americans?” The “Slavery Hypothesis” has been successfully challenged and discounted by many as being baseless and lacking in evidence. Although, as they say in litigation, “what can be stricken from the record cannot be stricken from the mind,” as many people still believe the “Slavery Hypothesis” to be factual. Dr. Jackson’s research poses a far more evidence based answer to the question, “why African American?” Dr. Jackson’s research focuses on racial disparities in health. His findings lend quite a bit of information in that area and others concerning the characteristics of health in the minority community. His multifaceted approach keys in on health as well as the psychology behind it. As Dr. Jackson’s research may began to posit some real answers to the question, “why African American?” it also poses new ones. What is the true mental state of the African American community? Jackson believes that many, if denied their acquired stress coping tactics, may spiral into depression in as little as one years’ time. That can be extrapolated to suggest that many minorities living in stressful environments are actually already in a state of inactivated mental depression. I think that the best plan of action for psychologists and physicians as well, is to dispel the myths and the outright fallacies concerning health. Then we might be able to begin to address the causes of disparities.

    Reply
    1. kenlyn sam

      Disparities was defined as the function of life course. Health Disparities is the inequalities of people from different groups. The lack of education, drug use, poor living condition and poor eating habbits can contribute to health and mental health disparities.

      I beleive that psychologist can help by offering free counseling session for people that live and experince health and mental health disparities.

      Reply
  7. benny

    Health disparities are the inequalities that occur in the provision of healthcare and access to healthcare across different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups. In the video the speaker talks about white male living an average of 7 years longer than the average black male.But there are other heath factors which contribute to this such as poor health care, the environment or lack of access to heath, which means that anyone can be affected so using heath disparities to justify that whites live longer the blacks does not make any sense.
    In the United States, health disparities are a well known problem among ethnic minorities such as African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos. It is not justified when heath disparities are used to claim that rate of diabetes and high blood pressure among other illness are much higher in African Americans than in Hispanic Whites, they may be other factors contributing to this fact which may be lack of exercise and bad eating habits. So having high blood pressure or diabetes has nothing to do with being black or white.
    What psychologist can do is to provide a framework that outlines strategies and skill that can be taught to health care personnel to prevent unconscious racial attitude and stereotype from negatively influencing to course of clinical outcomes.

    Reply
  8. Chamirah Farley, RN

    Health disparity refers to a particular health difference that is closely associated with social, economic and or environmental disadvantage. Health disparities have the ability to impact groups of people who have systematically endured greater obstacles to health on the basis of race/ethnicity, religion, gender and age. Other variables can include socioeconomic status, mental health, physical or emotional impairment, sexual orientation/gender identity as well as geographic location.
    Psychologists have the ability to reduce racial disparity by raising awareness to the topic. Education serves as a means to combat the issue.

    Reply
  9. Keven Deng

    After watching the video in my opinion health disparities are not attributed to the issue of race in the basis of mental or physical health but attributed to such things outside of this topic such social standing and economical standing. By this meaning that one’s physical and mental health are actually influence by such things as whether one is privileged and live have grown up in a protected life or not as shown in the beginning of the video and at the end with the graph of two different ethnic groups starting at the same point and diverging as age increase to where they split significantly because of these social and economic reasons. In addition, surprising what I found out from watching the video is that I would not believe that living in a maladaptive environment leads to behavior that helps reduce negative stress since I thought that living a in positive environment would lead to behavior that would help reduce negative stress. The reason for this because according to the video the differences in structural life inequalities affect chronic stressors and that these chronic stressors are coped with the behaviors such as an example like smoking but the weird thing is that generally smoking is bad but is associated with positive coping ability.
    I think psychologist can help reduce racial health disparities by being more reachable through public events because of the reason that the major disadvantages when it comes to racial health disparities are of those who have poor economic or social standing in society such as having a low paying job. The reason for this is because most people with type of background from what I have noticed is that they are least likely to even think about looking at the research because they are more likely concern about such things like next day’s meal or how they are going to pay the bills for that week. So psychologist can actually conduct their research and actually bring the awareness to these people from this background they may be able to help take a step on the path toward racial health equality.

    Reply
  10. daniel quiles

    health disparities are difference between race in health but from watching this video i can tell that a lot information we use is inconclusive because a lot of this research does not account for the social environment. Within this video many examples are shown that whites live longer than African americans but yet most the information doesn’t account for external factors. race does not determine health , lack of exercise or mistreatment of the body leads to bad health.
    Psychologist can make a real difference by making people aware that race does not play a role in disparities, they should also promote a healthier lifestyle. they should also promote school , and stop showing these inconclusive charts about whites having better everything , without showing the opportunities presented to each set of races

    Reply
  11. Henry M.

    Health disparities refer to differences of groups of people which affects socially, environmentally, and/or physically. It affects socially by race, gender, and/or age. It affects environmentally by the residential areas and/or working area. It affects physically when people have disabilities and/or health. The video mentions that white people live longer than the black people. They live longer because of their residential area or community, and probably have better health care than others. If black people have the same treatment as the white people, they can live as long as white people.
    Psychologist can reduce racial health disparities by providing information and education to those who do not know that having bad health has nothing to do with race.

    Reply
  12. kareshma

    Health disparities are based on the conditions people live in, the social status of people, and these disparities are hugely differentiated between people by the idea of race and ethnicity. The condition people live in is based on their social status which is based on where they live, what kind of job they have, how they are paid, how big their families are, what their families income looks like. There are just so many different health disparities that reduce the quality of health and care people receive in different parts of the world. The way people are cared for when ill or unhealthy shouldn’t be based on the color of their skin, or the social status of that person. In other words we shouldn’t live in such a world. Health Psychologists should take steps to help reduce the number of people not being cared for because of minor and un-reasonable disparities like race, social status, or where they live. Some steps psychologist could take are,
    – start zooming in on areas that are not widely looked at when it comes to delivering health care.
    – visit these places and try to promote healthy living conditions
    – start camps and sites where people in these areas can come for help and care
    – bring in more medical equipment to these areas

    Reply
  13. Li

    Tons of statistic data from this film show us racial disparity in health. Race is a social construction highly based on the appearance or physical traits. It’s true that certain races are more likely to have some genetic diseases. For example, sickle cell disease, which is caused by mutations in genes, is more common for black. However markers of race like skin tone cannot account for the majority of racial disparity in health. I believe that socioeconomic status play an important role in health disparity by race. People living under poverty are more vulnerable to lots of chronic diseases. They have limited options for healthy food, suffer more poverty related stress, and have high rate of risky health related behaviors. All those contribute to chronic diseases. Unfortunately, a disproportionate high number of people from some racial groups is living in poverty.
    Psychologists can hold some community services to teach people about the causes of health disparity and discuss this topic with them. More education helps people to raise the awareness of the topic.

    Reply
  14. A. Cynthia Parvinn

    I believe the health disparities between African American and Non-Hispanic Whites are those between mental health and physical health issues. African Americans are less likely than Non-Hispanic whites to suffer from mental disabilities, such as major depression. However, African Americans are more likely to suffer from physical health problems such as type two diabetes and cardiovascular disease. What I found most interesting is the paradoxical difference when it comes to mental health and the two racial groups discussed: Non-Hispanic Whites were more likely to be depressed when engaging in poor health behavior (overeating comfort foods, smoking, drinking, and drug use) whereas African Americans were less likely to be depressed when they did practice poor health behaviors. However, I feel that while the poor health behaviors may save African Americans from mental disorders, they are affecting the physical health of this group.

    To reduce racial health disparities, I think psychologists should design programs to be utilized within all communities, focusing on the issues each community faces. In this video, there were several tables and graphs that showed almost equal rates of developing diabetes, hypertension, and life expectancy rates at birth. This goes to show that child development, childhood experiences, and the foundations of self-identity play a role in the physical and mental issues that arise in young to middle adulthood. If there are programs within communities that properly educate and help people feel more comfortable within their skin and the experiences they face, they will be better equipped to handle the various curve balls life throws. I also think psychologists should start to create programs within all communities to teach and educate the public on meditation and its health benefits. Once people realize that things don’t happen to them, but rather things happen around them and they must see issues for what they are in the present moment, I believe we can close the gap between health disparities and race.

    Reply
  15. Emmauel Acheampong

    In his address, James S. Jackson delivers a descriptive study which emphatically and categorically highlight ambiguities and inconsistencies in health differences and disparities among ethnic and racial groups.
    By the use of new statistical tools, the speaker logically refute and debunk the correlational relationship between physical, mental disorders and racial backgrounds. Also, with the help of other studies, the vulnerability and differences between physical and mental diseases among the various groups are clearly demonstrated.
    Jackson contends that, Race, as a concept, is hard and complex to define thus it is mistakenly categorized in biological and social research. Self reported survey is one of the areas where the contextual meaning is “diluted” thereby creating misrepresentation of information by respondents.
    In the summary, the speaker critically suggest that psychology, as a science, should seek new methodology of finding factors such as the lack of privileges and protective measures as the determinants of health disparities and differences. Additionally, Jackson calls for new effective and efficient interventional methods to address the core issues of health discrimination, disparities and differences by all social psychologists.

    Reply
  16. shenelle

    Health disparities are the negative differences between the quality of health and the quality of life across ethnic groups. Too much weight is put on a person’s race/ skin color to define them through life. A psychologist would have to break the cycle of how people in society interpret another person’s skin color. This is because at first sight, someone’s skin color also automatically comes with preconceived notions about them, regardless of how they’re dressed or even their level of education.

    Reply
  17. Rpalma89

    Health disparities can be described as an subject connected to race. But was it truly stands for is the inequality between race and health. Although race does play a crucial factor to the subject there are other factors that are more significant such as the environmental factors, educational factors and social economic factors. Research has been conducted between african americans and non-white whites that shows that non-hispanic whites had a higher risk of depression then african americans. Due to african american social struggle within education, social economic and their stressful environment they were able to over higher stresses then non-hispanic whites.

    -Then, in another sentence or two, describe you think psychologists can do to reduce racial health disparities in the United States.
    I think psychologist need to not only focus on non-hispanic whites and african americans but other minorities within society so it can broaden the idea of who and what need more help. They can also educate the communities they want to change.

    Reply
  18. Rafael

    In no more than a few sentences, please describe what you believe health disparities are. Use the topics covered in the video clip.
    -Then, in another sentence or two, describe you think psychologists can do to reduce racial health disparities in the United States.

    Health disparities is the difference in health between race, both physically and mentally. The speech by James S. Jackson talks about the key factors or stressors that causes both health problems and mental health problems and the causes to these stressors, which is due to race and the environment. Jackson explains to us how the environment affects our stress, and how we learn to cop with these stress, either through comfort food or drugs and alcohol. Jackson shows how race segregates non-Hispanic whites from blacks, latinos and asians. Therefore we see how health disparities are form, non-Hispanic whites being living in better condition don’t deal with stress cause from their environment, unlike blacks and latinos. To cope with stress we turn to food and drugs and alcohol and this leads to bad health. Jackson shows that without these disparities, blacks will be better off and showed how non-Hispanic whites have more mental problems than blacks.

    We see in the film that race is not a variable to health and mental health disparities. I think a psychologist should finds ways to communicate with their community and bring awareness of the struggles people go through, the harm they do to themselves, and finding ways to better themselves as a person to both keep physically and mentally healthy and to better future generations.

    Reply
  19. Nawang N. Sherpa

    Health Disparities means inconsistencies or differences in health related sector in our societies which mainly impacts people on the basis of what ethnicity they belong to. However, all differences doesn’t imply health disparities. We can understand that our culture attributes to our physical as well as mental health which can be justified from various facts that is illustrated in the video. For example, in the video, there are plenty of slides that define how minority group have to deal with differences during various instances in their lifetime. Though, all of the group start of as equal, as during the life course they traverse apart due to various environmental, social, psychological and economic stressors. From, this we can understand that disparities are function of a life. There are also examples on how socioeconomic status may not be sufficient enough to explain how the disparity occurs as physical health favors Whites over African American whereas mental health works the other way.

    We can also draw conclusions that there are several laws such as laws of small effects which accumulate during the life course and make differences that we all observe.

    In my opinion psychologists can come out with one excellent theory that would accumulate all the circumstances that create health disparities and then work on to find solutions. I think emphasis should be given to educate other individuals that race is not a variable that would impact health disparities. However, there are other factors that contribute to health disparities such as:
    a) Environment which include poverty, neighborhood, noise etc.
    b) Stressors which include job, family and financial stability.
    c) Negative health behaviors such as smoking and drinking.
    d) Physical and mental health disorders such as cancer and chronic diseases.

    Finally, we could aware people on above mentioned factors and work hand in hand which could help to reduce health disparities.

    Reply
  20. Sadiquah

    Health disparities are the reflection of unfair and unjust treatments related to health among groups of individuals sharing the same race. There are many factors that contribute to these disparities such as the environment in which we are surrounded by, the neighborhood we live in, and the poor health behaviors that we perform. Stress was also a huge contributing factor according to the video that results in racial and health disparities.
    Psychologists can reduce racial health disparities in the U.S. by educating the public on the contributing factors mentioned earlier. Community meetings/forums will bring awareness to the people and start to create a change within in the U.S.

    Reply
  21. donna myriel

    Health disparities are inconsistencies in the quality of health that reflects an individual’s racial background and socioeconomic status. Even though statuses shows that one’s health has nothing to do with racial status. Being black or non-Hispanic white should not determine one’s healthier rather the environment of that individual especially coming from a low economic background. There may not be resources available to support the well-being of those individuals.
    psychologists can reduce racial disparity by providing more awareness of the issue, whether it be by free educational programs in different communities. Also, being open minded in not letting race be a factor in treating a patient and possibly offer free services in areas in need of it.

    Reply
  22. iespinoza

    1. Both mental and physical health disparities subsisting in the “defined” as disadvantaged groups such as blacks and other demographic minorities are not simply generated by the unequal social and economic factors. Along with these, influential elements as having populations classified by race, gives life to more contributing factors, such as a poor health behavior, that lead these disfavored groups to persisting poorer health outcomes (or health disparities) when compared to the groups with benefits or advantages.

    2. Since there are already campaigns promoting awareness in this topic (I’ve seen and even attended to some) my suggestion will be to keep on enhancing the health education imparted at these events and also reinforce the implementation of the material exposed by creating programs with the appropriate cultural approach to benefit the minorities

    Reply
  23. Mdelie16

    Health disparities are the differences in the prevalence of health conditions based on populations such as African Americans versus Non-Hispanic whites. The video mentions that these disparities are based not on race but on many other factors like social inequalities such as structural life conditions which include age, gender, income, employment status, and educational opportunities. For example, a person with higher education and a very good job would live longer compared to someone who lacks these things. Other factors that affect the disparities include the environment, what resources are available in your neighborhood, ways in dealing with the chronic stress process, and poor health behaviors such as alcohol/ drug abuse and lack of exercise. I agree with Kareshma and Jenn, to reduce these disparities psychologists have to make it their goal to get the education out there. I like Kareshama’s idea of having camps and sites where people can have access for help and Jenn’s idea of having the APA mandate pro-bono cases.

    Reply
  24. Taurey

    Racial Health Disparities
    I believe they are the negative effects our society and its views projects onto a demographic affecting its well being. Due to the social inequalities of America people categorized as non-Hispanic whites get the longer end of the stick when it comes quality of life and its progressive pursuit. These measurable inequalities cause stress on to those of who can not or have not decided to be labeled non-Hispanic & white. The film we have viewed goes in-depth into the diseases and health reflections of the racial disparities we discuss. In my opinion I feel stress is the most harmful disparity, because It can manipulate the mind body and soul of an individual.
    Psychologist can come up with more affective ways to assist people who can not afford, or are denied adequate health coverage, with more affordable ways to cope with health disparities. They need to develop treatments that will strengthen the individual mentally and spiritually if possible, so they do not fall victim to unhealthy coping strategies such ass violence, drug abuse , alcohol abuse, smoking and comfort eating.

    Reply
  25. rssp044

    One group or population living under a certain natural or biological conditions is different than other groups who might have lived in better conditions or may be worse conditions. The overall condition or well being of the human body is primarily dependent upon their satisfaction levels (like their job, health, mind set, or if they are getting enough love or not etc.) I think that by giving proper facilities to under represented groups and by educating them is a good way to create awareness in them on how to live a good life. When people are given the right atmosphere or environment to grow and thrive it helps them a lot. I think the United States is a great country in a way that larger organizations help lower groups a lot, which is a very good way to improve any system.

    Reply
  26. IrinaF

    According to this video , there is an advantage groups that were doing better than disadvantage groups because of stresses, environmental and psychological differences that they undergo in life. The many types of differences is if you make a lot of money you live longer, if you have higher education and better jobs you live longer. Negative neighborhoods where you live can be very stressful on your outcomes for disparities , particularly in blacks than whites. I also believe that the largest contributor to both disparities in health and health care is limited access to health care.
    – I believe that psychologist can reduce disparities by providing programs for individuals to attend to in order to increase their knowledge about what they can do in order to avoid being part of the health disparities, and have groups get together so they can pass on the word to the rest of the community.

    Reply
  27. Chunn

    I think health disparities is a theory of the differences in health between races both physically and mentally. Basically, the research shows non-hispanic is more physically healthy than african american but are less mentally healthy because of the social environment and the location environment.

    I believe that psychologist cannot reduce racial health disparities, so the only thing they can do is let the communities know about this topic and let the people be more aware of it.

    Reply
  28. Eric

    1.Health Disparities basically means that there exist inequalities faces by certain population groups, who does not benefit from the same healthcare. I felt that health disparities have more to do with environmental factor and less with races. Health disparities usually result from poverty, environmental threats and inadequate access to health care and educational inequalities. For example, people who live in unsafe environment and poverty would have shorter life expectancy than a person who lives in safe environment and in a stale income.
    2.I believe that psychologists could help reduce racial health disparities in the United States by education and making people aware of the environmental issues. People who are educated would try to change their lives for the better.

    Reply
  29. Eric Aung

    1.Health Disparities basically means that there exist inequalities faces by certain population groups, who does not benefit from the same healthcare. I felt that health disparities have more to do with environmental factor and less with races. Health disparities usually result from poverty, environmental threats and inadequate access to health care and educational inequalities. For example, people who live in unsafe environment and poverty would have shorter life expectancy than a person who lives in safe environment and in a stale income.
    2.I believe that psychologists could help reduce racial health disparities in the United States by education and making people aware of the environmental issues. People who are educated would try to change their lives for the better.

    Reply
  30. dorcas

    This lecture just goes to confirm what the video that we watched in class about race power of an illusion says that race is not biology. Race is something that was made up to give some people the satisfaction of superiority over others. According to this video race is the outcome effect of inequality between the majority white and the minorities, especially African Americans. The effect of chronic stressors, and stress result in health disparities. Large disparity in wealth, education, environment and mental health are not in favor of the minorities. In addition to these are discrimination and less opportunities. Wealth inequality is not the only problem, social inequality is also part of the health determinants. It has been proven that if you have more education, better jobs and more money, you will live longer.All of these opportunities give whites longer life span. There is no stable genetic markers, or genes that differentiate one race apart from the other. People often use skin color as marker but these different colors evolved as protection against the sun for some and for others to be able to get vitamin D that is needed for fertility, fetal development and good bone structures. All the evidence shows that there is no superior gene or superior race, if we are all exposed to the same condition, the health outcome will be the same.

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  31. Kar Lee

    Health Disparities are the socio-economic status, racial group, ethnic background group, and health outcomes defined as African Americans Black compare with Non-Hispanic Whites. After I watched the film, African Americans have the higher risk of health conditions than Non-Hispanic Whites is because of inadequate of education level and behavioral factors.
    I think psychologists can do to reduce racial health disparities in the United States because of people with lower education level can cause the health conditions in each of the racial and ethnic group.

    Reply
  32. Slangford

    Health disparities reflect on differences between groups of people. Ethnicity and race plays a large role in this. I feel it is wrong to use skin color and race to Indicate someone’s possible health. Health physcologist can educate doctors and patients on how using some ones race and Ethnicity does not determine their health

    Reply
  33. Einstein$13

    I believe health disparities are loopholes we have in health, our health care, and judicial system, in which reflected on our socioeconomic, ethnic group, sexual orientation and lack of education. we, human being suffer from what I call psychological inferiority complex where we have to put another person down in other to feel good about ourselves.
    As good and important research are to development of mankind, psychologist in my opinion can not reduce health disparities. until we can eradicate the mindset of the power that be, until we can create one level of plan field which there would not be any first class, second class citizen, health disparity will remain an illusion to be perused but never obtain. It is a global issue that we have to address in a global level.

    Reply
  34. klever quinde

    race and social disparities are different for different ethnicities, where some racial groups are more inclined to do better early in life and later in life and some aren’t , and some groups have better mental health over physical health. many factors play into this such as your income amount where it’ll affect what you eat where you live and the way you deal with stress and education where it could affect how you deal with these issues and what to do about them which is why it was found that generally whites lives longer, because higher education, better jobs. better lives, less stress, longer lives.

    Reply
  35. Milka Ng

    Health disparity refers to different health status between different groups of people; not just about ethnicity, but also includes different culture background or environmental circumstances. I strongly believe that idea we discussed in class- an illness doesn’t runs into your family, but habit does. For example, we have fast food shops all around our neighborhood, and many of us tend to depend on these fast food shop. It’s fast, it’s doesn’t require any cooking skill or cleaning, and it’s cheap! Why would I spend $30 to prepare a meal while I could order food from fast food shop for less than $10? These kind of living style runs into many people. The fast food culture we adopted is a main reason of health disparity. When you(or your kids) were grow under these habit, it’s very hard to get rid of.
    It could also be cause by social status. Imagine this- you worked in a labor job for a whole, would you spend time to cook? absolutely not! you just want a quick meal and a hot shower; you want to save as much time as you could! To reduce these health disparities, we need to change our bad habit. This idea needs to be promoted. What government could do is do case study of what group of people are in high risk on certain illness, and let them know what kind of habit puts them into high risk. Quitting habits could cause mental unstable, so psychologists should provide proper help.

    And here is a little joke =D
    http://cdn.iwastesomuchtime.com/October-17-2011-16-22-16-ScreenShot20111017at12.jpg

    Reply
  36. Sayma

    This film further proves that our race play no role in our healthy being. It’s completely up to how an individual takes care of themselves and their body. Health disparities refer to the gap or inequality of health and healthcare among racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups. The races that were highly discussed in this video were African Americans and Non-Hispanic whites. Statistics based on several surveys conclude that certain diseases and health issues are most among certain racial. If surveys diagnosed how long a person would live and contract what disease the a person can live seven extra years just by saying he’s white on the surveys, as James Jackson joked. Our health is a lot more affected by our environment more than anything
    I believe the psychologists can reduce social disparities by getting rid of stereotypes, firstly. The next approach should be teaching their patients, or clients how to live a better life by choosing the right food, taking the stairs instead of elevators or escalators. Every individual in our society has a lot of stress due to money, relationship, jobs etc. Now most of these people would turn to alcohol and other drugs as a coping mechanism. These people needs to be better educated about the risk factors of these products and how it may affect their well being in the long run. The psychologists must educate their clients more about these issues to help promote a longer, healthier and happier life style for people of every color and gender.

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  37. Keila Gordon

    Health disparities are created by what is believed to be a cycle of history in certain races, ages, and genders. People are planted with the idea that race has a lot to do with what a person may inherit in the future. Although the studies have been done, the outcomes technically do not mean it have to do with race. Health issues have a lot do with someones environment, not their race. Social classes contribute to these “racial theories” as well. Placing people in stereotypes doesn’t result in a solution. Being in a disadvantage situation can cause unawareness and instability. Some people may be unaware of what their environment may endangered them with and some people might not have the expenses to seek a more experienced doctors with better resources.

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  38. Victoria Qiao

    Health disparities is the unfair judgement of health based on race, culture, age, environment. For instance, James Jackson mentions “If you make a lot of money, you live longer”, this stereotype are the social inequalities that affects society. The results of the research on white and black population are evident that poor health are caused by the environment, which cause stress and other disorders. Rather than race, age and gender, poor health behaviors are effective in environment where stressful conditions are high. The lack of resources and education contribute to this poor health behaviors.

    Furthermore, to help reduce racial disparities I believe breaking the stereotype of the link between race population and health by spreading the facts for everyone to know will be helpful. The more people are aware of this, it will change the way people see health disparities.

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  39. anthonynedd

    It appears that health disparities between ethnic and racial groups have more to do with inequalities and access to proper health care and resources, than it has to do with differences between races and ethnic groups.

    Psychologist can decide as individuals to take pro-bono cases or reduce fees for patients associated with specific areas. The creation of incentived government programs to encourage a balancing of the disparities between races and different groups based on geography, will aid the cause. Psychologist specifically and other health care workers: doctors, dentist, nurses, etc. can be given access to grants, tuition pardons, or fellowships to work in lower income and financial challenged areas. Psychologist with the help of the powers that be, can make change is the disparities between ethnic groups and racial groups by investing in lower income areas and building a better health infrastructure.

    Incentive programs encouraging local farmers to increase farmers markets and access to fresh fruits and vegetables at cheaper cost to lower income and disenfranchised areas will also may an incredible change in health disparities.

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  40. Donna Liu

    Health disparities are differences between groups of people, more so on how any ‘disease’ affects a group. This video talks about health disparities in terms of how it affects different racial and ethnic groups, like for example african americans and non-hispanic whites. However, “race is not a variable” and it really isn’t about being a certain race, it’s more about poor living conditions, lack of resources and environmentally produced chronic stress.
    Psychologists can help reduce these racial health disparities in the U.S. by teaching about and providing better health care in the communities in need. These communities need to be educated about how it’s not about their race, it’s more about the resources that are not readily available which causes these problems.

    Reply
  41. Altenor

    Jhonny Altenor
    Feb18, 2015

    First of all, health disparities are defined as unfair treatment or health inequalities between different cultures, population groups. For example, African Americans, non-white Spanic people, white Spanic people, and white people, among these different groups, I believe there is such a man made constructive thing, so-called ” race “, which leads to such health disparities. In the video. James S. Jackson, social psychologist, speaks out about a variety of subjects regarding healths, diseases, mortality, or living conditions of different social population groups. He says, ” White males are living 7 years longer than black males, and the rate of mortality of black kids is more than white’s kids, so and so on.”
    In my opinion, it all comes to several factors: health care, education, environment, and socio-economic status. Besides that, Barack Obama, the President of the United States with that regard has been trying from Day One to focus on health care to improve lives. However, Congress people think differently. The president of the United States every day does all he can regarding this issue, health disparities. Psychologists now, in my opinion, can make more effort to speak out in order to reduce racial disparity by educating, any means necessary to keep fighting for the sake of humanity.

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  42. Ashley Golden

    In my opinion health disparities are the differences in health over a general population. This could consist of diabetes, high blood pressure, lung cancer etc. In order to prevent health disparities I feel that there needs to be more research done to give a proper diagnosis. If we continue to give diagnosis based on our “Race” then how can we prevent any more health crisis.

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  43. Margaret Spence

    In my opinion, health disparities are usually were we come from culturally. Where we come from has a big in pack on our health, and our life course. Race and ethnicity are most of often used, both in biological and social research. Common factors in disparities are, poor health behavior, mental health, Diabetes, hypertension, smoking, and lack of physical activity. Your environment effect poor health behavior as well as stressors that mask the stress response. The consequences for poor health behavior, is weight gain, the use of alcohol and drug use. The most important thing is race is not a variable.
    Psychologists know that this is not a story about race, it’s about how people live. The way to reduce racial disparities is to do more clinical study, on the health care problems that are plaguing our society.

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  44. Veronica

    Health disparities are determined by the difference of different groupings of people which determines how many people of that group would be ill and how frequent. Racial health disparities can be reduced by examining more thoroughly each seperatem victim without knowing their race before diagnosis to receive a more adequate diagnosis by looking closely to the circumstances of what the person is facing and the location’s environmental effects or if a person has limited means to live with.

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  45. Pingback: In the Spotlight: Health Psychology | The Open Road

  46. Raz

    Disparities to me is a reflection of the unfair treatment in biases to an individual. Separating societal groups into the advantaged and disadvantaged. Everyone is born with no stressors, the separation between the advantaged and disadvantaged grow further apart by stressors. The differences between health problems found between these two groups have nothing to do with race, but in fact has to do with their environment.
    Psychologists can help reduce racial health disparities in the United States by educating the public through seminars, online videos, articles, columns or even having guest for dinner and informing them the best ways to cope with stress.

    Reply
  47. Lizet

    I think health disparities are associated with differences between racial groups, like socio economic status, education, health care access. Certain race groups for example white don’t usually experience disparities compared to minorities.these disparities can be also seen as unfair situations minority’s may experience due to societies negelection to certain ethnic groups. The lack of resources and opportunities minorities experience have affected there lives for a long time.

    To help reduce disparities in our society, we need to help those communities that lack resources that others in a better social economic status have. We need to see beyond the color of people and be united as a whole. Creating disparities is mainly due to racism of others. I think it isn’t fair for other to receive a different type of treatment due to their color. The on going stress minorities have experienced for many years has increased stress levels and has left the vulnerable to chronic diseases.

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