Community Health Advocacy Project

Step 1: 1 POINT
Select one racial/ethnic group from list A and one general health problem from list B:

LIST A
African American
Hispanics
Native Americans
Asian Americans
Recent Immigrant group (ANY)
Other Minority group

List B
Heart disease
Stroke
Cancer
Low birthweight OR very low birthweight infants
Infant Mortality
Child or adult Obesity
Diabetes or Hypertension
Hepatitis
AIDS
Asthma
Mental Health

1. Find statistics on the rate or prevalence of the condition, or information on its severity or impact for the selected ethnic group. HINT: start with an exploratory literature/web search to ascertain that the group selected from LIST A is at a significantly higher-risk for a specific condition in LIST B than Caucasian
   Americans. The disparity in health status should suggest that special targeting may be necessary for
   prevention or treatment. NOTE: Be sure to paraphrase content taken from published literature, use in-text citations to reference, and include all reference in your reference page. Always use APA style of formatting. Keep track of references as you conduct your research throughout each step.
2. Show that there is a health disparity (e.g., as seen in the rate or prevalence of the condition, its severity or impact, environmental findings, etc.) between this ethnic group and Caucasian Americans (the US majority group). Use credible sources to provide documentation for your findings, including peer-reviewed articles from databases (e.g., Web of Science, PubMed, Psych Info), textbooks or other creditable websites (e.g,. Centers for Disease Control).
3. Outline possible environmental, socioeconomic, structural barriers to access, cultural (e.g. health beliefs) or behavioral (sick behavior, disease preventive behavior) causes that might have produced the observed disparity in health status for the selected ethnic group.
4. Choose a variable (or a small set of variables … e.g. health beliefs or structural barriers to healthcare, etc) which seem(s) to be the major root cause of the health disparity in question.
5. Provide a substantive argument which outlines whether you think the observed disparity is an accurate description of a true difference in health status or NOT.
6. Discuss some major questions which must be answered (for instance in relation to health insurance coverage, health education, disease prevention, environmental improvement, education improvement, medical literacy improvement, improving provider cultural competence) in order to be able to develop strategies to reduce or eliminate the disparity in health status for the selected ethnic group.

Sample Solution