Helping women in color achieve a healthier future

As the chief medical officer of the family woman Choose a doctor for your child, ensure that your family receives recommended care, and lead them to play the role of primary caretaker for older parents. Still, women often find it difficult to manage their health due to lack of time, poor access to health care, or systemic barriers that impede a healthy life.

This conversation is especially important to celebrate National Minority Health Month. This is a time to raise awareness of how poorly serviced people, especially colored women, are facing additional barriers to creating health inequalities.

the study Black, Hispanic, and Asian-American / Alaska Natives span a variety of health indicators, including infant mortality, pregnancy-related mortality, prevalence of chronic conditions, and overall physical and mental health. It shows that you will experience worse results compared to whites.

Implicit bias and racism in health care contribute to these disparities by influencing the diagnosis and treatment decisions and quality of care of patients in historically marginalized communities. These communities lack health education on the greater health risks faced by certain illnesses, poor access to healthcare services, and social determinants. Make the situation worse..

We have to do better. You should expect your healthcare provider to measure the difference in health outcomes and deliberately act to fill the gap. We have programs available to women of color to address the increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, adverse maternal health, and other conditions, and those risks. You need to be educated about screening.

We need to lower barriers to preventive screening and access to medical services. It is necessary to ensure the cultural background and the diversity of representatives of the care team. And we should invest in research and treatment that seeks to understand and promote the health of the color community.

Help more women take care of their hearts

Cardiovascular disease, despite increased awareness over the last few decades The main cause of death for women in the United States.. According to the American Heart Association Half of all black women There is some form of heart disease in the United States, 1 in 5 The black woman believes she is personally at risk.

On average, Hispanic women can develop heart disease 10 years earlier than non-Hispanic women, 1 in 3 Hispanic women know that heart disease is their number one murderer.

Obviously, we have more to do to raise education and awareness about the risk factors and symptoms of heart disease in colored women. The American Heart Association tells womenKnow their numberIt more actively measures and manages blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose and obesity index. Recognizing symptoms is even more important for women as they may experience less noticeable warning signs such as indigestion, nausea and vomiting, or pain in the upper jaw / neck / back.

It is also necessary to convey that pregnancy represents a window to a woman’s future cardiovascular health. Hypertensive pregnancy disorders such as pre-eclampsia, which is 60% more common in black women than in white women, can affect the lifetime risk of developing heart disease and stroke. Prevention does not end when a baby is born. In a sense, it’s just getting started.

Raise awareness of cancer screening.

Cancer is second only to heart disease The most common cause of death Of American women.Regular screening is very important, but for blacks and Hispanics No health insurance It adds an economic barrier that interferes with early detection and treatment than their Caucasian counterparts. The two cancers have a particularly large impact on the color community.

• Breast cancer: Black women Highest mortality rate From breast cancer in the United States 40% more likely They die of breast cancer more than white women.Breast cancer incidence in Hispanic women is lower than in the general population, but nevertheless terrible Of that population of cancer. Regular mammography examinations are the most effective examinations used today to detect breast cancer in women.
• Endometrial cancer: In the United States, almost all black women Double the chance of dying Comparison of endometrial cancer with white women, and both black and Hispanic women are more likely and less likely to experience worse medical access Comply with guidelines process. 1 JAMA network open Studies show that the early symptoms of endometrial cancer are often overlooked by black women and their donors.Another person General screening tools It is common to miss endometrial cancer in black women.

It is clear that new equity-based solutions are needed to increase cancer education and begin addressing cancer treatment inequality. A good example of such an approach is modeled by Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Office of Diversity Programs (ODP).

ODP is improving the diversity of providers by hiring racially and ethnically diverse faculty, fellows, and residents. They are working to increase the participation of minority patients in clinical trials of cancer and receive adequate minority and medical services to access hospital cancer prevention, screening, and treatment programs. Consistently contact patients who do not.

Ensuring diverse participants in clinical trials for cancer and other diseases is another way to address equity. Fairness in trials provides an important basis for developing safe and effective medicines and understanding the social determinants that influence disease diagnosis, treatment and outcomes.

Conclusion

In order to improve the health care of all people, especially the color community, we still need to pay attention to how to close the gap between inequality and health care.Inclusion of racial and ethnic data by the Quality Assurance Commission HEDIS (Medical effect data and information set) is a good first step. By incorporating social determinants into these key quality indicators, HEDIS currently holds health insurance that is responsible for addressing care and outcome inequality between patient populations.

Still, there’s still a lot to do. Health inequalities are a crisis in the United States. We must continue to openly discuss and understand the root causes of systemic bias and racism and the resulting inequality in health care. In this way, we will act boldly as a society and make improvements. National Minority Health Month provides an opportunity to identify and address how our healthcare system, community, and lifestyle affect our ability to lead healthy lives now and in the future.

To achieve fairness, improve access to health care in historically marginalized communities, address social determinants, strengthen health education, and increase the number of representatives of health care offerings at all levels. You need to invest in programs that increase access to clinical trial studies.

This multi-tiered effort requires ongoing collaboration between many stakeholders, including providers, industries, governments, and community-based organizations. These investments ensure immediate and long-term health benefits for everyone, not just the color community.