Studying the demographics of health disparities among various ethnic and racial groups may address fairness issues in providing health care services. The issue of health disparity tends to be overlooked in the society, but it works like a plague-like strain that spreads when left unaddressed. Those who belong to minority groups (LGBT, Asians, Latinos, or Black) are often subjects of discrimination from a socio-cultural perspective. Hence, people from minority groups often get the short end of the stick when accessing health benefits. Such outcome makes people from the minority groups more susceptible to health-related complications and prone to sickness compared to their white American counterparts.
People who belong to the LGBT community and black race are often subject to health disparities from several groups – regardless if it is intentional or unintentional. Different studies focusing on analysis of health disparity confirmed that the prevalent health issue among minority groups were sexually transmitted diseases. A fact sheet released by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2014) states that gay/bisexually oriented African Americans aged from 13 to 24 are the ones most affected by HIV. CDC’s 2011 report also showed that there is an increase for African American gay and bisexual men admitted due to HIV infection (39%) compared to their white (34%) and Hispanic counterparts (23%). Given the increased HIV admission percentage from the side of African American members of LGBT, it becomes an alarming number because of the sexually related customs undertaken by the younger populace. Thus, it leads increased efforts on providing proper health care and assistance to minor ethnic/racial groups. Regardless of the numbers presented, efforts to emphasize on gender/racial equality and improved quality of medical services should go hand in hand. Any form of social stigma towards the minority of population and factors that negatively affect the health care system should never be a common practice.
References
HIV Among African American Gay and Bisexual Men. (2014, May 1). Retrieved October 30, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/black_msm_fact_sheet_rev_final.pdf
