Health Disparities May have Underlying Racial factors.
| Ovary Cancer Mortality Rate per 100,000 | Massachusetts | Lowell City, MA | Weston town MA |
| WHITES – Only | 8.8 | 10.6 | 6.6 |
| BLACKS – Only | 6.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| ASIANS Only- | 3.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Table Source: MassCHIP, Department of Public Health. Found at: http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/researcher/community-health/masschip/topics/ovary-cancer.html#state_total
Other Sources:
“Immigrant Women’s Health: Nutritional Assessment and Dietary Intervention.” Western Journal Of Medicine. Aug. 2001. Web. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071509/>.
The data presented in the table above represents the Mortality rates of specific racial groups in Lowell city Weston and Massachusetts whole. The racial groups examined were Whites only, Blacks only and Asians only.
Asians Only
Asians represented the group with the lowest mortality in Massachusetts compared to the other race groups. With a mortality rate of 3.1 per 100,000 people in Massachusetts, it is almost an undeniable fact that Asians in Massachusetts suffer less from Ovarian cancer compared to the Whites and Blacks with 8.8 and 6.5 respectively. Their mortality rates were also zero in the town of Weston and Lowell.
Reason for Health Disparity
According to the census data, Asians median income are less compared to whites. Based on this, unaffordable health care in Weston or Lowell might cause them to seek care in other towns. the resulting effect is mortality rate that are either low or non existent in those towns. This is evident from the data in the table. They had zero mortality rates in both Lowell and Massachusetts.
Other reason that may be the cause of the stated health data about Asians, is the role of diet. Diet factors may pale a role in the susceptibility to death by ovarian cancer. According to research by University of California ,School of Medicine, one diet contributes to developing any type of cancer. This researched stated that a typical Asian diet consist of vegetables, rice and legumes. Ovarian cancer is attributed to diets in high fat. As a result of this, Asian face lesser occurrences of Ovarian cancer. This serves as a race related pattern that explains the numbers in the table above.
Black Only :
The MassChip data above shows a lower mortality rate for Blacks in the town of Lowell ,Weston and Massachusetts compared to the White Population
Moreover the rates for Ovarian cancer deaths for black s were zero(0) in the Lowell and Weston. There weren’t any deaths in those two towns during the period of data collection.
Reason for Health Disparity
One reason for this disparity maybe that, the cost of being hospitalized in the town of Weston and Lowell is too high. As a result minority groups favor hospitalization in a different town with affordable health care. The end result, is a little to no data on mortality rate for certain expensive conditions like Ovarian cancer in a town like Weston and Lowell.
Whites Only:
According to this data by MassCHIP, Whites have a high mortality rate in Lowell, Ware and Massachusetts compared to the two other racial groups (Asians and Blacks)
Reason for Health Disparity:
The possible reasons for this health Disparity is quite difficult to pinpoint. Regardless of the town, the mortality rate was high for Whites.The contributing factors for Ovarian cancer according to the research are diet, genetics, and lifestyle. (Western journal Of Medicine). One can however, vaguely say that the lifestyles led by the White race ( Women) contributes to their high mortality rate compared to the other two race. White women may also be genetically disposed to Ovarian cancer compared to Asians and Blacks.
Similarities
Both Blacks and Asians in the town of Lowell and Weston had a zero (0) rate of Ovarian cancer mortality. This was not surprising because blacks and Asians are of the minority group. Therefore, a similarity between them is common and expected. Why is there a zero (0) rate in these two cities for these minority groups? An underlying factor is the unaffordable health care in the Lowell and Weston . As a result, these groups were hospitalized in a different towns and face their ultimate death or survival there .
Overall, one can say that race plays some role in health disparities in America. In this case, mortality rate of ovarian cancer differ drastically among Whites, Blacks and Asians. This, I believe is a disparity that is triggered by lifestyle, diet , genetics of a specific group and affordability of health care in specific locations.
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