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Improving the health of African Americans in the USA: an overdue opportunity for social justice
- Source :
- Public Health Reviews
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2016.
-
Abstract
- Using a modified social ecological model, we conducted a review of the literature and nationwide statistics on African American health. We discuss the main social determinants of health and main health disparities, risk factors, the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, and access to health services for blacks in the USA. The mechanisms through which social determinants, including racism, exert their deleterious effects on black health are discussed at the macro and individual levels. Incarceration and mental health care issues are highlighted as priorities to be addressed. African Americans remain the least healthy ethnic group in the USA, a somber legacy of years of racial and social injustice and a formidable challenge to equitable health care for all. Systemic causes of suboptimal black health require equally systemic solutions; positive trends in black health indicators seem to be driven by social development programs, economic investment in education, participation of African Americans in policy, and decision-making and expansion of access to health care.
- Subjects :
- Economic growth
medicine.medical_specialty
Review
Race and health
Social determinants of health
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Environmental health
Political science
Health care
medicine
030212 general & internal medicine
Health policy
Ethnicity and health
African Americans
Community and Home Care
030505 public health
business.industry
Public health
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
International health
Health equity
Health promotion
Health disparities
Social justice
0305 other medical science
business
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 21076952
- Volume :
- 37
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Public Health Reviews
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....54f8e3893c03948d2488b024a4c4f891