Disparity In Health Essay

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In Washington State, certain populations experience major disparity in regards to diabetes health outcomes. The populations most adversely affected by this disparity are those of older age, lower education, lower household income, and/or identify with Hispanic, Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander minority racial groups. Diabetes health disparity in the older population is illustrated by Washington State’s DOH who shows that among non-Medicare members, the prevalence of diabetes of people >65 years of age (~23%) is about three times higher than that of people 18-64 years of age (~7.4%) (Wiesman, 2014). Disparity in diabetes health also affects those with lower education, where it’s found that individuals …show more content…
It uses ideas like social status, wealth and education to systematically exclude certain groups from obtaining equal diabetes health outcomes. One pathway that SES uses to create disparity in diabetes health is through educational differences. As was seen previously, attaining higher education is associated with better diabetes health outcomes. This is in part because more education leads to more knowledge of diabetes and healthy behaviors in general (Kemper, Savage, Niederbaumer & Anthony, 2005; Braveman, Egerter & Williams, 2011; Ullah, Afridi, Rahim, Ashfaq, Kahn, Shabbier & Rahman, 2015). With better knowledge about the cause, complications, management, nutrition and prevention around diabetes, higher SES individuals with more education are better equip to live in a way that promotes health and prevents negative diabetes outcomes from occurring (Barbeau, Krieger & Soobader, 2004). Because less educated, lower SES individuals face greater difficulty at obtaining the same knowledge, many don’t know how to live healthy lives or prevent and manage diabetes. This leaves less educated individuals systematically disadvantaged in avoiding and controlling diabetes, contributing to the diabetes health disparity in Washington

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