So what is minority
health?? Well according to Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ,2013)
"The overall health of the American population has improved over the past
decades, but not all Americans have benefited equally from these improvements.
Minority populations, in particular, continue to lag behind whites in a number
of areas, including quality of care, access to care, timeliness, and outcomes.
Other health care problems that disproportionately affect minorities include
provider biases, poor provider-patient communication, and health literacy
issues" (2013, AHRQ). And in order
to bring health awareness we have to be able to understand and handle the
cultural beliefs in order to bring awareness to a certain ethnic group.
Furthermore,
it brings me to the topic of the evening which involves the quality of minority
health regarding communication among Hispanics. According to Professor Williams
(Williams, 2016), Hispanics are the group that have the lowest health literacy.
One of the main factors that contribute to this statistic is that English is
their second language. This can bring many difficulties such as misinterpreting
health news, not understanding health covered, and so much more.
Which brings
me to my next topic, is that a study done by Emma Wertz and Sora Kim (Wertz,
& Kim, 2015) the title of the article is Quality of Minority Health
Communication: An Analysis of Hispanic-Targeted Health Websites. Their studied
in 2008 showed that around 81% of Hispanics were on the internet. But 56% of
Hispanics were searching for health related topics (Wertz, & Kim, 2015).
And reading this journal article open my eyes and I am able to put the factors
together on why Hispanics have low health literacy. Coming from a Hispanic
background this makes so much sense my family was not that aware when it came
to health-related topics. Until I decide to pursue a career in the health field
to bring awareness and knowledge of the health care system. Any by using other
sources such as the internet, radio, or television Hispanics are able to somewhat
educated themselves on health matter, also, it is easier to comprehend and
cheaper (Wertz &Kim, 2015).
In addition,
the usage of the internet has increased but how much of the information that is
on the internet is credible. According to Wertz and Kim ” Of specific concern
were the validity of presented health data, quality of online medical advice,
and lack of scientific data supporting claims related to commercially available
treatments. In addition, health websites often fail to include necessary information
such as the source of a document, e-mail addresses, or dates associated with
information updates” (Wertz &Kim, 2015). And these factor plays a big
factor since the main source Hispanic obtain their information and providing
misleading information and information that is not comprehendible can lead to
many complications. This can cause people to think that things are not true
which can cause them to make a drastic measure for example not getting their
children vaccinated. By taking these measures we can ensure the Hispanic
community receive the best information regarding their health benefit and
medical coverage through their insurances.
Reference
Wertz, E. K., & Kim, S. (2015). The quality of
Minority Health Communication: An Analysis of Hispanic-Targeted Health
Websites.American Communication Journal, 17(2), 27-37.
Internet Citation: Minority Health: Recent Findings.
February 2013. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
http://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/factsheets/minority/minorfind/index.html
DeRuiter-Willems,
L. (2016, February 22). Lecture presented at Health Literacy, Charleston.
