Introduction
African American men are associated with higher risk of contracting prostate cancer than the white men and their death rate due to this condition is also high. Although social economic and biological factors are the main influencer for this condition, improved screening should be established to bridge the gap.
However, in the health care perspective, the African American culture is in dual disadvantages of being provided with insufficient care and their biological differences which is more vulnerable to the prostate cancer (Ewari, Gold & Demer, 2009). The primary care physicians, who should be engaged in providing care, education and screening activities, are not playing their role well due to the ethnicity disparities.
The African American men are more exposed to the prostate cancer due to the poor access to health care. According to the medical report, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, developed in 2002, the African American men are vulnerable to ethnic and racial minorities. They experience lower quality in health care services than the whites, even when variables such as income and insurance covers are favorable to them (Boyd, Weinrich & Norton, 2001).
The racism is more affecting the African American men more in the screening of the prostate cancer where the disparity is involved in the process. The reason behind this is the fact that they have poor communication between the patients and the physicians due to insufficient cultural fitness amongst the physicians. This ethnic group also has inadequate health insurance cover hence access to health care is limited to poor services. The awareness and knowledge to screening is also limited among the African American men. The majority of them are not aware that there is modern detection for the condition. These are the issues that are supposed to be addressed by primary physician but due to cultural differences, they deem it unfit (Ewari, Gold & Demer, 2009).
Studies have also outlined that there exist differences in prostate cancer treatment offered to African American men patients. Potentially, therapeutic therapies, including radiation or radical surgery may be recommended to provided at less amount to the blacks due to socioeconomic or co-morbidities considerations.
In addition, the potential metastatic condition may be realized in a less accurate and timely manner. This is because African men are less likely to go through pelvic lymph node dissection. It was highly linked to the worse survival in the black men with badly discriminated prostate cancer.
Other problem may occur in screening where false negative test result may be derived. When this happens, a victim delays his medication assuming that he is healthy while he is not, thus being more exposed to death risk. Another problem in prostate cancer may involve biopsy complications including fever, urinary tract infection and blood in urine or semen among others.
In order to satisfy the needs of African American men and the multicultural society as whole, health care has to establish the effective framework to assist in providing culturally competent and sensitive care. This model is the Purnells model which will assist in improving the outcomes of ethnicity and minority groups in the United States.
With regard to Purnell’s model, the assumption outlines that all cultures have the common fundamental similarities and difference existing among then cultures does not show the superiority of the culture (Purnell, 2003). The model also outlines that culture influences individual’s responses and interpretation to the health care. Therefore, if this model will be implemented, it will help to solve culture and ethnic differences existing among black American men and white men.
The Purnell model outlines differences among races as an important factor to consider while performing health assessments, investigating genetic and hereditary diseases and prescribing medication. People from a specific group may, but in some cases, have a common subcultures or culture. African American are recognized by having black skin but a person who who is white and have no biological relation with blacks may categorized himself to African American culture.
References
Boyd MD, Weinrich SP, Weinrich M, Norton A. (2001). Obstacles to prostate cancer screening in African-American men. J Natl Black Nurses Assoc
Ewari AK, Gold HT, Demers RY, et al.(2009) Effect of socioeconomic factors on long-term mortality in men with clinically localized prostate cancer. Urology
Purnell, L. (2003). Trans-cultural diversity and health care. In L. Purnell and B. Fulanka (Eds.), Trans-cultural health care: A culturally; competent approach, (2 ed). Philadelphia: F A. Davis
