Health Disparities Breast Cancer - Essay Example

Health Disparities "Breast Cancer" Health Disparities "Breast Cancer" Healthy people has set 2020 while The Millennium Declaration has chosen 2015 as the target date for accomplishing most of their goals and objectives regarding health issues in general and health disparities in particular. Healthy people’s 2020 goal associated with health inequality aims to achieve health equity, elimination of disparities, and improved health of all groups and defines the term health equity as the “attainment of the highest level of health for all people.

” (HealthyPeople 2020: Disparities, 2010). An astonishingly tremendous amount of black-white disparity has been observed in breast cancer mortality in Chicago. The mortality rate for black women was 49% higher in 1999 and it rose to 68% in 2003. No improvement has been seen in death rate from breast cancer in twenty three years resulting in racial and ethnic discrimination which is fatal for the survival of a society. However, early stage breast cancer has substantially increased for both black and white women (Hirschman, Whitman & Ansell, 2007).

Similarly, the disparity score data for women aged 40-64 clearly indicates that the score is above 1.00 for most of the sates in America which implies that the minority women including “Black, Hispanic, Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native women” are leading an inferior quality of life than white women (State Health Facts). Keeping in view the severity of the situation, the objectives for Healthy People 2020 tend to deal with this acute issue of health disparity and provide a framework for addressing it effectively.

One important thing to consider is that the absence of diseases does not guarantee good health. High quality education, wholesome food, protected housing, reasonably priced transportation, availability of pure air and their easy access to everyone in the society is equally essential to ensure heath equality around the country. For this purpose, Health Information technology and Health Communication will be made a central part of the implementation process, by Healthy People 2020, attempting to build and incorporate, where practicable, the public health IT infrastructure in collaboration with Nationwide Health Information Network.

Healthy people 2020 intends to access health disparities in U.S population by establishing a relation between death rate, chronic diseases and demographic factors including ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, geographic location etc. Other efforts include establishing an “all hazards” approach in an attempt to prepare for inevitable emergencies and public health issues (HealthyPeople 2020: Framework, 2010). As far as the disparities in breast cancer mortality rate are concerned, Healthy people 2020 plans to reduce the death rate from 22.

9 females per 100,000 females to 20.6 deaths per 100,000 females through Breast Cancer Screening Intervention Programmes and programs will be reviewed by the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (HealthyPeople 2020: Healthy People 2020 Summary of Objectives, 2010). The Millennium Development Goals Report states that United Nations goals to fight against global poverty and health inequality. The areas where improvement is required to guarantee the elimination of health disparities include employment, distribution of food, induction of children in pre-schools, maternal mortalities etc.

The reduction of under-five child mortality in under developed regions of the world is the first step towards the achievement of health disparity free society. United Nations seeks to attain health equality through routine immunization, vaccine for measles, at less than $1 per child. In 2007, the number of deaths from measles fell from 750,000 to 197,000. The second step is the improvement of maternal health because the safe birth of a child is considered to be a privilege of rich only. Access to contraception will be made certain in the countries with high-fertility rates and early marriages leading to teenage pregnancies so that the gap between the fertility rates of developed and under developed regions of the world can be abridged.

The young people in under privileged areas of the world are not well acquainted with AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Only 31% young men are 19% young women have the proper knowledge of AIDS. The goal is to halt the spread of HIV until 2015 by developing education sector, educating the masses about the harms of premature sex debut and insecure sex (EndPoverty2015, 2009). Due to extreme underdevelopment, the greenhouse effect and unprotected ecosystems are causing lethal diseases among the people of down trodden regions of the world as compared to developed countries where the accessibility to clean environment is far easier.

United Nations plans to device means and ways to abolish health disparity by providing clean water, reducing deforestation and forest degradation until 2015 (EndPoverty2015, 2009). References EndPoverty2015. (2009). The Millennium Development Goals Report. United Nations, New York. Retrieved from: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG_Report_2009_ENG.pdf HealthyPeople 2020. (2010). Framework. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/consortium/HP2020Framework.

pdf HealthyPeople 2020. (2010). Healthy People 2020 Summary of Objectives. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/consortium/HP2020Framework.pdf HealthyPeople 2020. (2010, December 29). Disparities. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/about/disparitiesAbout.aspx Hirschman, J., Whitman, S., & Ansell, D. (April 06, 2007). The black: white disparity in breast cancer mortality: the example of Chicago.

 Cancer Causes & Control, 18, 3, 323-333. State Health Facts. (2008). No Mammogram in Past Two Years for Women Ages 40-64, by State and Race/Ethnicity, 2006-2008. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved from http://kff.org/disparities-policy/state-indicator/no-mammogram-in-past-two-years/