Introduction
Studying epidemiology is critical for healthcare because it provides professionals with the knowledge needed to promote health. In particular, it ensures the possibility to prevent, control, and treat health-related issues. It discusses numerous concepts that ensure understanding of public health and problems faced by it.
Disparity
The disparity is often faced by the representatives of the general public. This term means that they are deprived of something because of particular differences, such as race or income, etc. (ODPHP, 2017). Today, professionals also discuss the issue of health disparity. Discrepancy deals with health and is associated with people’s characteristics. For instance, these can be social (African Americans – racial discrimination), economic (unemployed – lack of finances), and environmental (house near a plant – contamination of air, water, etc.) peculiarities.
As a result, these individuals cannot obtain free access to healthcare services and deal with other obstacles to health. Fortunately, professionals pay much attention to this problem today. They develop initiatives that can assist deprived populations because the absence of disease does not mean that their health condition is appropriate.
Societal and Public Health Perspectives
As health disparity presupposes that various populations are at different levels of risk for the occurrence of negative health conditions, it is critical to consider them from numerous points of view. Nevertheless, societal and public health perspectives are used in the majority of cases because their interventions are the most influential ones. Professionals should discuss several variables when coping with health disparities.
First of all, attention should be paid to a particular population, place, and time framework. These elements affect the occurrence of a problem and allow further generalization that is required for future changes. In other words, they can find out who suffers from what, where, and when. For instance, societal and public health professionals can gather information about the issue they consider to be critical for the population.
Those who live near busy streets often suffer from respiratory problems that are worsened because of air pollution caused by cars. Professionals need to conduct studies to prove the connection between these elements and approach governmental agencies to implement changes aimed at traffic reduction. In addition to that, they can educate their targeted population about this issue and improve access to health services (CDC, 2016).
Prevalence of Hypertension
As the prevalence of hypertension has not altered significantly, it is important to identify reasons for such a tendency. A descriptive epidemiologic study with the identification of a particular state and people’s characteristics is needed. Their age, race, sex, lifestyle, diet, and past medical history are to be addressed. Additional attention should be paid to such factors as stress, social support, and genetic predisposition. In particular, it would be advantageous to focus on individuals of both genders who are older than 65 years old (WHO, 2017).
They should be interviewed or asked to complete a questionnaire that addresses hypertension and access to healthcare services. For instance, it will be advantageous to find out what they know about this issue, how they deal with it, and who supports them, etc. This information will be extremely helpful for an experimental study, because it will reveal existing gaps, urging professionals to cope with them.
Conclusion
Thus, epidemiology discusses various health-related concepts, including disparity. It allows gathering information about various populations and their risks for having particular health issues. Unfortunately, people do not have the same access to healthcare services yet, and some of them live in those environments that affect their condition adversely. Nevertheless, these problems can be overcome with the help of epidemiology.
References
CDC. (2016). Strategies for reducing health disparities. Web.
ODPHP. (2017). Disparities. Web.
WHO. (2017). Raised blood pressure. Web.