Treatment Disparities and Health Prevention: Do We Care About Our Bodies?

This past week I read an article on a study done by The Institute of Medicine which highlighted treatment disparities between different ethnic groups. The study concluded that children of minority groups are far less likely to receive treatment then white children. On the surface this seems like yet another manifestation of racial injustice. The more I looked into the findings, however, these treatment disparities seemed to be the result of a lack of general health within our community. In the study, although minorities were less likely to receive treatment, they were more likely to receive life altering surgeries. As I tossed this study around in my mind, the most persistent question was that of our lack of commitment or desire to commit to the idea of healthy living. The idea of healthy living would seem to be one that is common to all, however, it is not as common as we may think. Studies suggest a number of reasons why health promotion is not an all-encompassing idea, and I will discuss a few them here. First, there is the idea that certain cultures may not comply with the idea of healthy living because of generations of psychological training. Second there is the idea that people of lower socioeconomic status think differently about their healt...

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