Various minorities and cultural groups in the United States face different barriers and health problems related to their traditions and social backgrounds. For this reason, medical personnel should be aware of different racial groups’ characteristics to offer them the most beneficial and suitable methods of prevention and treatment. This paper will study a minority of Native Americans and Alaska Natives to identify major health problems and barriers and find ways of health prevention.
Overview of American Indians and Alaska Natives Minority
American Indians and Alaska Natives form a minority with diverse ethnic and geographical compositions. This racial group makes about 2 percent of the US population and consists of 573 federally recognized and parts of unrecognized tribes (“Profile,” 2018). At the same time, 22 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives live on reservations, and only 60 percent live in metropolitan areas, which is a low rate (“Profile,” 2018). These resettlement features prevent representatives of the minority from receiving health care services, especially those tribes that live in rural areas.
Another notable feature of American Indians and Alaska Natives is their socioeconomic status. About a fifth of the minority live at the poverty level and have limited opportunities for quality education. Accordingly, American Indians and Alaska Natives are less aware of health issues and have poor nutrition, since they do not have enough money to buy quality food. Thus, members of this minority face many barriers to accessing health services, such as geographical remoteness, poverty, or isolation, negatively affecting their health.
Health Disparities and Nutrition
Poor nutrition, substance use, and the lifestyle of many American Indians and Alaska Natives are risk factors that cause various diseases in the population. Warne and Wescott (2019) note that many social factors impede a healthy diet for the minority, including poverty, historical trauma, or childhood adverse experiences. For example, since the tribes are forced to live on reservations but not on their father’s lands, they are deprived of traditional nutrition sources and patterns. At the same time, poverty limits people’s ability to buy food; thus, many American Indians and Alaska Natives use state and federal nutrition programs that include high-calorie but low-nutritional foods (Warne & Wescott, 2019). In addition, this racial group shows high levels of alcohol, drug, and tobacco use (Warne & Wescott, 2019). All these features negatively affect people’s health and cause numerous diseases.
Different studies and statistics show similar trends in health disparities among American Indians and Alaska Natives. Unhealthy and high-calorie diets have led to obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes among the minority’s population (Warne & Wescott, 2019). The use of tobacco and alcohol has caused a spread of cancer, as well as liver diseases. In addition, American Indians and Alaska Natives have a high prevalence of mental illness and suicide due to their low social status, poverty, and limited access to psychological care services (“Profile,” 2018). Thus, this minority is faced with many health problems that need to be solved.
Barriers to Health
Poverty, geographic remoteness, and the lack of health care facilities are the main socio-cultural barriers to promoting health among American Indians and Alaska Natives. Although members of recognized tribes can usually use federal and state programs, they are limited and do not cover all populations and issues. In addition, almost 15 percent of the minority do not have insurance, while another 43 percent rely on Medicaid or public coverage (“Profile,” 2018). Consequently, a significant part of the population cannot get access to medical services or receives only a part of them.
However, another significant barrier is the cultural and religious beliefs of the minority’s members. Some tribes and their representatives prefer to use traditional medicine or have special cultural rites that impede hospitals’ treatment. For instance, among the minority, there is a widespread belief that disease of the body is the result of the soul’s illness or wrongdoings; therefore, soul healing is paramount (Cohen, 2018). Besides, often American Indians and Alaska Natives use herbs and other traditional treatments that can interfere with timely access to hospitals. However, since most of the minority do not adhere to traditions, cultural influence is not always decisive.
Nevertheless, today the minority uses community, state, and federal programs aimed at the prevention of diseases. The purpose of these programs is to improve housing conditions and nutrition, as well as test public health and provide education (Warne & Wescott, 2019). In addition, people who follow cultural traditions use herbal remedies to prevent and treat certain diseases (Cohen, 2018). Therefore, although current prevention methods are limited, they are available for American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Health Promotion Prevention
Although a combination of all three levels of health promotion is the most effective way to improve the health of a minority, healthcare professionals need to focus on one aspect due to limited resources. Three levels of health promotion include the primary level of ensuring healthy conditions that prevent the development of diseases, the secondary level of diagnosis and treatment, and the tertiary level of rehabilitation (Hanson et al., 2019). The situation of American Indians and Alaska Natives demonstrates that primary level methods are the most effective prevention option in this case.
Most of the minority’s health problems are related to poor nutrition, insufficient education, and limited access to health services. Consequently, state and country governments need to review existing nutrition programs and improve their composition, as well as direct efforts to educate the population on nutrition patterns and create access to health services. Nurses also should emphasize the importance of healthy diets and educate their American Indians and Alaska Natives in this field. These steps help reduce the incidence rate and adverse effects of poor nutrition on health people with chronic diseases. A secondary and tertiary level is also essential in this minority, since many people require treatment and rehabilitation of chronic diseases and addictions. However, such treatment will not be useful for the minority as a whole, if, due to various barriers, the number of people with diseases will only increase.
Cultural Practices and Health Promotion Model
In the process of applying primary methods of prevention, as well as treatment, medical professionals must take into account the cultural characteristics of the racial group. For example, environmental models consider different levels of impact on people from individual to state (“Ecological models,” n.d.). Consequently, it can be applied for health promotion in the American Indians and Alaska Natives minority. For example, a nurse should use an individual approach for a person who follows the rules and traditions of his or her minority to offer suitable conditions and treatment. At the same time, new nutritional programs should be designed with consideration of community factors, such as traditional tribal foods, since tribes in Alaska and California are used to different products. In addition, representatives of the minority living in cities have different needs and cultural traditions than inhabitants of rural areas, so individual and institutional factors must be taken into account to solve their problems. In this way, the health of American Indians and Alaska Natives can be improved if health care professionals and governments consider cultural, geographic, and social factors that influence their behavior.
Conclusion
Therefore, a minority of American Indians and Alaska Natives has many barriers and health problems due to socio-economic factors. Cultural traditions also matter to the minority and can impede the provision of quality health care; however, they are not decisive. Consequently, the main methods of promoting health and the prevention of disease should be aimed at the primary level of ensuring healthy living conditions and nutrition, education, and access to healthcare services.
References
Cohen, K. (2018). Honoring the medicine: The essential guide to Native American healing. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.
Ecological models. (n.d.).
Hanson, C. L., Crandall, A., Barnes, M. D., Magnusson, B., Novilla, M., & King, J. (2019). Family-focused public health: Supporting homes and families in policy and practice. Frontiers in public health, 7, 1-6.
Profile: American Indian/Alaska Native. (2018).
Warne, D., & Wescott, S. (2019). Social determinants of American Indian nutritional health. Current Developments in Nutrition, 3(2), 12–18. Web.