Introduction
Social, economic, political, geographic factors, and much more affect people’s wellbeing. As individuals have different access to financial resources, housing, and healthy foods, some encounter health-related problems. The combination of these factors is called a health disparity, and it disproportionately impacts minority groups. The root of healthcare inequity is challenging to pinpoint, as it is connected to several historical and geographical factors. However, in most cases, the cause of health disparities lies in the various elements it includes, such as socioeconomic status and one’s physical environment. The present analysis is concerned with the problem of health disparities and potential solutions based on current research and a community approach.
Research
The healthcare research on health disparities contains many studies that consider a specific problem or population, such as minorities or low-income households. Nevertheless, some articles also present general descriptions of interventions and ways to approach this issue systematically. For instance, Agurs-Collins et al. (2019) discuss the process of designing multilevel interventions to reduce health disparities among minorities. According to the authors, addressing racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities is often difficult as they require healthcare professionals to collaborate with other specialists (Agurs-Collins et al., 2019). Therefore, it can be argued that programs for interventions have to have robust planning and participation to succeed.
Furthermore, it is necessary to highlight the recent role of COVID-19 in the issue of health inequity. Greenaway et al. (2020) present an outlook on how COVID-19 has exacerbated many groups’ disparities – racial/ethnic minorities have experienced higher rates of infection and worse access to care and vaccination. Examples of health disparity interventions can be taken from the review by Haldane et al. (2019), who focus on community participation. The listed papers are used in the following analysis and are credible and relevant to the discussion due to their focus.
Analysis
Health disparities can affect people from all nations, but they affect disadvantaged populations. Therefore, the setting in which one lives is a crucial determinant of potential health risks. For instance, such factors as poverty, environmental hazards, access to proper nutrition and healthcare, housing, education quality, and access to it influence one’s wellbeing. These elements of one’s life can be changed, but they often are affected by other underlying problems. These immutable characteristics include one’s race/ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation and identity, disability. They are linked to discrimination risk or different health-related needs. These vulnerable groups are at higher risk of poverty, violence, and prejudice, which negatively affects their physical and mental health (Agurs-Collins et al., 2019). As health disparities affect whole communities rather than individuals, this problem is fundamental for modern healthcare research, which seeks systematic solutions.
For example, COVID-19 has shown the impact of health disparities on ethnic minorities and migrants. While the infection is dangerous for all people, health inequities have made COVID-19 a great risk for the health and survival of vulnerable groups. Greenaway et al. (2020) reported that, in New York City, African Americans and Latinos were twice as likely to die from the infection in comparison to white people. In the United Kingdom, the risk among Asian and Black residents was also higher than that of the white population (Greenaway et al., 2020). Based on these statistics, the connection between ethnicity and COVID-19-related deaths lies in minorities’ poor socioeconomic standing, healthcare barriers, and higher comorbidities rates (Greenaway et al., 2020). Thus, one can see how ethnicity is among the factors that influence health inequity through the combination of other contributing elements.
Potential Solutions
To address health disparities, an intervention has to acknowledge and manage a variety of underlying problems that lead to inequities affecting vulnerable communities. Therefore, significant resources and interprofessional collaboration are necessary for any program to succeed. According to Brown et al. (2019), a structural intervention is the best approach for reducing health disparities – it should include authentic engagement and a disease-agnostic view. Therefore, community organizing, planning, issue prioritization, and other tactics are vital for developing a program that appropriately recognizes the weak and strong points in the current setting.
Ignoring the issue of health disparities can further exacerbate its risks for affected populations. As noted by Greenaway et al. (2020), the lack of preparedness to address the spread of COVID-19 among minorities has led to higher mortality and infection rates – people with no access to healthcare and medications have to deal with severe cases on their own. This example demonstrates why interventions on a wide scale are necessary to implement as soon as possible. Haldane et al. (2019) suggest that community-based programs are a viable solution for lowering the impact of health disparities. The potential benefit of this approach is the higher engagement of the affected groups, which increases their knowledge and leads to higher participation rates (Haldane et al., 2019). However, a community participation program also requires significant time for preparation, planning, and implementation, as the community’s needs are not dictated by health agencies but by the affected members.
Ethical Principles
To implement a community participation health improvement program, one has to create a planning team that includes professionals and community representatives. Then, several meetings are held to determine which issues the affected population deems the most important to resolve (Haldane et al., 2019). Based on this information, goals and strategies are formulated, implemented, monitored, and analyzed. In this case, one needs time, funding, and an appropriate and rigorous evaluation system. A robust organizational process is crucial to the outcome of such interventions, which rely on the ideas shared by community members.
The proposed intervention’s implementation aligns with the four ethical principles in healthcare. First, following the principle of beneficence, this program aims to improve population health and reduce the impact of health disparities on vulnerable groups. Second, as the reduction of health disparities allows people to get better access to healthcare and improves their overall wellbeing, it is in agreement with the idea of nonmaleficence. Community participation is inspired by people’s right to autonomy and justice – vulnerable groups are given the tools to find factors that affect their health and improve them. Research presents a plethora of examples that show positive outcomes of community-based interventions for reducing health inequities. Haldane et al. (2019) present a review of such cases, demonstrating better health education, higher vaccination and medication rates, overall satisfaction with the intervention, and more. The results of community participation have been recorded in several countries, including the United States.
Conclusion
Health disparities are a complex issue based on many socioeconomic and immutable factors. Affected groups include racial/ethnic minorities, disabled people, migrants, low-income households, and other minority communities. It is necessary to address health inequities with a multilayered intervention as it needs to simultaneously target several spheres of one’s life. Therefore, a community participation solution is proposed to correctly assess the needs of the vulnerable group and develop a program based on their view of the issue. This approach supports the ethical principles of health care and gives people autonomy over their wellbeing.
References
Agurs-Collins, T., Persky, S., Paskett, E. D., Barkin, S. L., Meissner, H. I., Nansel, T. R., Arteaga, S., Zhang, X., Das, R., & Farhat, T. (2019). Designing and assessing multilevel interventions to improve minority health and reduce health disparities.American Journal of Public Health, 109(S1), S86-S93. Web.
Brown, A. F., Ma, G. X., Miranda, J., Eng, E., Castille, D., Brockie, T., Jones, P., Airhihenbuwa, C., Farhat, T., Zhu, L., & Trinh-Shevrin, C. (2019). Structural interventions to reduce and eliminate health disparities.American Journal of Public Health, 109(S1), S72-S78. Web.
Greenaway, C., Hargreaves, S., Barkati, S., Coyle, C. M., Gobbi, F., Veizis, A., & Douglas, P. (2020). COVID-19: Exposing and addressing health disparities among ethnic minorities and migrants. Journal of Travel Medicine, 27(7), taaa113. Web.
Haldane, V., Chuah, F. L., Srivastava, A., Singh, S. R., Koh, G. C., Seng, C. K., & Legido-Quigley, H. (2019). Community participation in health services development, implementation, and evaluation: A systematic review of empowerment, health, community, and process outcomes. PloS One, 14(5), e0216112. Web.