Racial disparity - Research Paper Example

This paper shall discuss the racial disparities in health in the United States. It shall discuss what researchers have found as causes for such disparities. This paper is being carried out in order to establish a clear and comprehensive discussion of the subject matter and to establish reasons for the existence of the phenomenon. Discussion The racial disparities in the United States in relation to health are considered significant. For one, the current death rate for blacks registers at about 100,000 blacks dying each year (Levine, et.al., 2001).

The different diseases or health issues as well as causes for mortality shall be specifically discussed by this paper. Death rates for coronary heart disease have registered at a higher rate for blacks as compared to whites, with about 30% of blacks more likely to die from the disease. Cancers now register at a higher rate for blacks as compared to whites. Cancer death rates have also been higher for blacks as compared to whites with lung and ovarian cancer increasing for both blacks and whites, and colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer increasing among blacks and remaining stable for whites (Piffath, et.al., 2001).

The various causes for such racial disparity shall be assessed in terms of socioeconomic status, residential conditions, and medical care. Socioeconomic status is a definite predictor of health with those in the lower classes likely to experience more illnesses and higher rates of death. Such health status is also influenced by race with those in the minority races likely to experience lower economic conditions and consequently compromised health status (Williams and Jackson, 2005). Education is also a factor in racial disparities in health.

The homicide rates among African-American males not having completed high school registers at a rate five times higher as compared to black males having completed college. Moreover, there is also a “ninefold difference in homicide rates by education for white males, a fourfold difference for black females, and a sixfold difference for white females” (Williams and Jackson, 2005). The rate for homicides among African-American males with higher education is eleven times higher than their white counterparts.

Income disparities also impact on racial differences in health, especially in terms of coronary heart disease and cancer mortality (Williams and Jackson, 2005). Studies claim that death rates for these two diseases are higher among low income blacks and whites as compared to those in the middle class (Williams and Jackson, 2005). Moreover, blacks also have higher rates of mortality from heart diseases as compared to whites. In the low and middle income female blacks, they incur higher rates of mortality for heart diseases as compared to the white low and middle income white females (Williams and Jackson, 2005).

The above picture portrays a clear racial disparity in the health care system of the United States. This disparity is largely disadvantageous for African-American men and women who mostly belong to the lower income group who are often uninsured and who do not have as much access to health care as their higher income and their white counterparts. Some analysts claim that the cause of racial discrimination may be credited to residential segregation and neighborhood quality (Williams and Collins, 2001).

Segregation has caused the middle-class African-Americans to reside