African American Community: NYC
The identified population experiencing a health disparity in Valley Stream, NY, is the African-American community living in the area. It is important to note that Nassau (NA) County is considered among the healthiest counties in the state of New York (NY) and is ranked as the fourth best-performing location. However, African American individuals living in Nassau not only fall behind in premature death behind the county average but the mean of the entire state. The Premature Death values for the NA and NY are 4600 and 6000, respectively (County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, 2022). African American community has a value of 7000, with a margin of error between 6600 and 7500, which is mainly driven by infant mortality and low birth weight (County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, 2022). The health inequity impacts African Americans in Nassau country, who are faced with a low birth weight below the state and county average. Nassau is the healthiest region in New York, but the top health inequity is low birth weight.
Health Promotion
The health-promotion intervention based on nutritional improvements and pregnancy care for African American mothers needs to be implemented to improve low birth weight. The existing policy does not have sophisticated and evidence-based support for African American mothers in regards to providing better nutritional education, pregnancy care, and access to effective means of tracking the fetus’s growth. It is critical to reiterate that the health metric of premature death is the most impacted by deaths at younger ages. Infant mortality due to low birth weight is likely to be the key driver of the problem. It is reported that “newborns with extremely low birth weight were 200 times more likely to die in the first year of life” (Vilanova et al., 2019, p. 3). The opposition can be countered by the fact that NA’s African Americans are not experiencing other disparities to be identified as root causes.
Social Marketing Framework
The selected social marketing framework is community engagement and policy change. The products and services include superior pregnancy care, nutritional education, ultrasound device access, anemia reduction measures, and birth weight increase programs for African-American mothers. The cost of implementation and other resources are to be covered by The three potential partners in the community, such as the Family & Children’s Association (FCA), ParentChild+, and Healthy People.org.
The core promotion plan is to engage the community of NA through community leaders and proactive involvement based on facts. It is stated that the most effective engagement strategy for health inequities experienced by African Americans is to “proactively prepare public health leaders … and advance community leadership toward health equity” (Akintobi et al., 2020, p. 1). Therefore, the goal is to present the facts, raise awareness, educate the population, engage community leaders, and ensure proactive measures.
Evaluation
The end goal is to significantly reduce low birth weight, infant mortality, and premature death rates among African Americans in Nassau County. The evaluation of the efficacy of the change includes ultrasound device number and access, nutrition health professional number and access, birth weight among African American newborns, and the rate of anemia among African American mothers. The benchmark for success is the rate of mortality reaching the county average, as was shown in the first paragraph of this document.
References
Akintobi, T. H., Jacobs, T., Sabbs, D., Holden, K., Braithwaite, R., Johnson, N., Dawes, D., & Hoffman, L. (2020). Community engagement of African Americans in the era of COVID-19: Considerations, challenges, implications, and recommendations for public health. Preventing Chronic Diseases: Public Health Research, Practice, and Policy, 17(83), 1-10. Web.
County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. (2022). How healthy is your community? Web.
Vilanova, C. S., Hirakata, V. N., de Souza Buriol, V. C., Nunes, M., Goldani, M. Z., & da Silva, C. H. (2019). The relationship between the different low birth weight strata of newborns with infant mortality and the influence of the main health determinants in the extreme south of Brazil. Population Health Metrics, 17(1), 1-12. Web.