LATINO AMERICAN YOUTH HEALTH DISPARITIES

Researchers have shown that minority populations are exposed to a higher prevalence of chronic illnesses coupled with poorer health outcomes and increased death rates, when matched with the white population. For Hispanics, the problem of health disparities could be because of inconsistencies in the living standards, unemployment, and unfairness in terms of how they are perceived by their peers, in this case the whites1. To be specific, the pragmatic and persistent achievement gap when it comes to education has been identified to be a contributory factor to health disparity. For society, health disparities result to less optimal productivity level, increased healthcare costs and income inequalities. This is so because unhealthy people are likely to produce less as they spend so much in healthcare costs and thus they end of being economically disadvantaged2.

I will propose measures and programs not only to help with the achievement gap for the Hispanics or even the health disparities among the population, but also to help boost social and economic equality and wellbeing of the population and the country in general. This is too much to bite off. Look to help the health disparities, which in turn will reduce the achievement gap and thus improve their socio-economic conditions. Population This study will focus on the Hispanics or the Hispanic Americans. In this study, Hispanics are defined as people with origins in the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, South America and other Spanish-speaking nations. Hispanics are considerably less likely to graduate from their high schools as compared to the whites.

Moreover, they pocket the lowest incomes in terms of earnings among all the ethnicities and races in the US. These, coupled with some other issues like of insurance cover increase their susceptibility and risk for chronic illnesses of all kind. Due to the training and education achievement gap, Hispanics and Latinos are less aware of health and lifestyle practices that may increase the risk of contracting conditions such as cancer, heart disease and other illnesses. Second, since many to not graduate from high schools and colleges, the medical field end up lacking or having a scarcity of medical and health information that is relevant to their culture and way of life. 3% of the entire population8. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis is another health disparity that causes more deaths among the Latinos.

In 2005, 13. 9% of the Latinos died due to liver and liver related illnesses. On the contrary, only 9% of the general population died from liver diseases. Because of the unequal opportunities offered to the Latino students relative to their white peers, their performance cannot also be compared. Additionally, the fact that Hispanics are classified among learners of English language also contributes to the achievement gap for the students from these backgrounds. As per data presented by the US educational department in the year 2009, 37% of Hispanic kids in fourth grade were language learners while the section of English linguistic beginners in eighth grade was 21%11. Researchers have also revealed achievement gaps in sciences, mathematics, reading scores and in graduation rates of Hispanic students compared with their white peers.

Low graduation numbers for students from this group lead to (as earlier noted), reduced number of culturally competent professionals, relevant cultural information that could help in health care and lack of knowledge on best lifestyles. Program Design The planning, execution and evaluation of an intervention program to help solve the issue of health disparities among the Hispanics in the US will help boost the health and wealth of the nation. This program will put into consideration the challenges and issues that contribute to poor health access and poor quality care among the Hispanics to come up with great intervention framework to help address the issue and improve the life of the population in question. It is inclined towards helping teachers understand the health dynamics in the Latino population and how to tackle them.

The program will focus on three major goals at outlined below. Goals Goal 1 The first goal of the program will be to promote research on the understanding of how educational achievement gap between Hispanics and Latinos and the whites promotes healthcare disparities. Objective 3 Identify techniques of calling for increased government support offered for supporting research work on disparities among Hispanics as well as ensure accountability and equity so that government funding does not create more inequalities. Theory for Change Hispanic Americans face a major challenge (poor healthcare outcomes), which in turn affects almost every other sphere of life. If efforts were geared towards improving the educational access for the Latino students in college, the achievement gap as well as number of students graduating as practitioners would increase leading to availability of culturally competent professions for this specific population13.

It will also help improve the health literacy of the population that they will be able to understand information they receive from practitioners or even media sources. There will be less disease, ignorance and poverty as healthy people are likely to produce more and as a result, grow the country’s economy. Since Hispanic Americans may view themselves as unequal to their white peers, they may have low confidence issues about treatments they receive from the whites and may not follow the medical guidelines offered to them, especially in cases where it may contrast their social beliefs. In addition, Poverty and other unfavorable living environments could lead to increased stress making one vulnerable to many chronic illnesses17. This theory, therefore, could be used to explain the health disparities among the American society.

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) This theory as applied in psychology, communication and education asserts that part of a person’s behavior and knowledge could be acquired through observation of other individuals within their social interactions, experiences as well as outside media influences. Education and cognitive development are great determinants of health. Equally, such policies must capture the role of education and its significance in creating a sustainable environment that does not pose risks to Latino and Hispanic youths. From the above theoretical review, whites have disregarded the ethnic minority communities and most of the peer groups are suffering because of this. Medical care should be offered equally to all. The environmental factors that cause trauma and stress to the residents in the urban areas have to be reduced for the Hispanic health disparities to be reduced.