Neighborhoods and Health Disparities Malene Edwards, Ashley Smith and Ayana Holloway Dr.Alhassan

What is health disparities? According to National Institutes of Health health disparities are differences in the incidence and other adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups in the United States. Health disparities is a growing concern within the United States.

Health Disparities It happens among all different types of genders, races, and sexualities. Health disparities also appears in your local neighborhoods. Neighborhoods have a big impact on your health. According to Commission Health “Just as conditions within our homes have important implications for our health, conditions in the neighborhoods surrounding our homes also can have major health effects”.

Social Environment According to Commission Health “The social environment includes the quality of relationships such as trust, connectedness and cooperation among neighborhood residents”. If you are involved in a close knit neighborhood children won’t get involved into bad behaviors like alcohol use, drugs, gang involvement. If the neighborhood has a healthy environment and residents work together to keep the environment clean, safe, and keep the schools well you would see lesser health disparities in the neighborhoods you live in. According to Commission Health, “Less closely knit neighborhoods in the U.S. are greater degrees of social disorder have been related to anxiety and depression”.

Physical Environment According to Commission Health, “The physical environment resulting from structures built by humans as well as the natural environment”. As long as people that live in the environment takes cares of their neighborhood that would lessen the health issues that’s going on in the United States. The people living in the neighborhood have to be willing to up keep it.

Service Environment “The service environment includes neighborhood resources for education, employment, transportation, healthcare, grocery shopping, recreation and other services directly or indirectly tied to health” (Commission Health) In healthy neighborhoods these service environment tools are provided when you don’t have anyone helping with things like this the neighborhood falls apart and health disparities start to happen.

Statistics Among minorities At any income level blacks and Hispanics are more likely to live in poor neighborhoods than whites of similar income” (CommissionHealth, 2008). Whites, blacks, and Hispanics adults living in rural areas are at a higher risk of death than their urban counterparts. But after social economic factors such as education, health insurance and income are equalized, the health disparities are found to be reduced or even eliminated”. African Americans, for example, are three times more likely to die from heart disease compared to whites

Causes of health disparities in Neighborhoods According to Achieving Equity in Health, “compared to white neighborhoods have many black urban neighborhoods have more fast food outlets have fever grocery stores and recreational facilities and dump sites”. “Blacks and others living in or near low-income or distressed neighborhoods are exposed to greater levels of lead and allergens in their homes as well as to harmful emissions from nearby bus depots, factories, and dumps”. Stress can be a major role as well. Stress can cause a lot of health disparities, having chronic stress can be caused from the poverty that is happening in the neighborhoods you live in.

Impact of Health Disparities in Neighborhoods Higher mortality rates Shorter life expectancy Abundance of infectious diseases in particular minority groups

Treatment Methods Difficult to treat low-income homes Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or ACA) Georgia Department of Health

Recommendations Strategic focus on neighborhoods More data is to be collected to find possible other causes More surveys about the people’s needs Reduced availability of products harmful to health (i.e. tobacco and liquor stores) More neighborhood surveillance of drug abuse