Introduction
Many ethnic minorities live in the United States today. One of them is Native Americans, which includes many tribes. The author of this work has chosen Navajo from the Navajo Nation as the subject of the study. Like many other ethnic minorities, they are experiencing several adverse health and healthcare trends. This essay aims to explore the health status of Navajo people, current health disparities, health barriers, and health promotion activities as well as to find solutions to these problems.
Navajo People and Their Life Status
The Navajo are the second largest Native American ethnic group in the United States. Most of them live in the Navajo Nation, located in the territories of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. The leading causes of Navajo people’s death are factors such as unintentional injury, cancer, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes (Navajo Epidemiology Center, 2016). Research indicates that the Navajo ethnic minority has a lower life expectancy than US citizens in general, which is 74 years compared to 78 on average (Navajo Epidemiology Center, 2016). Poor infrastructure and socioeconomic problems are the primary influencers of all the death causes.
Navajo People Health Disparities
As was noted above, unintentional injury ranks first among all other causes of death in the Navajo Nation. According to Navajo Epidemiology Center (2016), “unintentional injuries are the 5th leading cause of death in the U.S.” (para. 3). Male prostate cancer and female breast cancer are the most common types of cancer among Navajo (Navajo Epidemiology Center, 2016). However, it is essential to note that stomach cancer among Navajo people is four times higher than that of non-Hispanic white Americans (Chief et al., 2020). Researchers have linked heart disease and type 2 diabetes to obesity. Kumar et al. (2016) note that “the prevalence of obesity among American Indian (AI) peoples exceeds that of other racial/ethnic groups in the United States” (p. 501). Navajo also have low rates of oral health compared to both Americans and other American Indian ethnic minorities (Brega et al., 2019). It may be due to the fact that “healthier foods are not as readily available in Navajo” (Kumar et al., 2016, p. 501). Good nutrition can be a significant preventative factor for many diseases.
Structural Inequalities as Sociopolitical and Socioeconomic Barriers
Most of the Navajo Nation territories are rural. It has created problems such as poor infrastructure. For example, about a third of all inhabitants of the Navajo Nation does not have access to electricity and clean running water (Webb, 2020). Navajo Nation communities are also not provided with quality roads and the Internet (Webb, 2020). It is also important to note that both Navajo Nation’s local convenience stores and supermarkets charge high prices for healthy foods (Kumar et al., 2016). These problems are related to the federal government’s limitations of tribal rights, independence, and participation in the share of local mineral resource extraction.
Navajo Nation Health Promotion Activities
There are several official health promotion activities programs that have been established by the local authorities of the Navajo Nation. The Traditional Foods Project has partnered with the Bureau of Indian Education to create a School Health and Wellness Policy that combines the traditions of Indian ethnic minorities with modern health standards (Satterfield et al., 2016). The Navajo Area Indian Health Service has also developed a plan for all Navajo Residents Reservations, which includes community physical activity, community wellness outreach, early childhood development, school health (Tuba City, 2019). The Navajo Department of Health provides everyone with the Navajo Cancer Prevention Program (Navajo Department of Health, 2020). It can be argued that local authorities are aware of the community’s health problems and are trying to solve them.
Navajo Nation and Three Levels of Health Promotion Prevention
Three levels of health promotion prevention may be implemented in Navajo culture and lifestyle. Community gardening may be the appropriate approach as it was already successfully practiced before (Ornelas et al., 2017). It has three stages, which are community garden, gardening workshops, and community outreach (Ornelas et al., 2017). Healthy eating topics are positively correlated with cultural themes of the four seasons’ knowledge and traditional Navajo farming. Physical activity and teamwork while gardening can reveal several health problems. Physical activity will be useful as a preventive and rehabilitative measure for obese people and those who have experienced an unintentional injury. It also does not conflict with cultural foundations of the Navajo. There is The Medicine man who is a healer and guardian of tradition in their myths. Socially cognitive theory is the most optimal cultural theory in such cases. It is “posits that learning occurs in a social context with a dynamic and reciprocal interaction of the person, environment, and behavior” (LaMorte, 2019, para. 1). Public gardening includes all the important cultural and psychological components.
Conclusion
This paper provides an overview of Navajo people’s health trends and compares them with national average statistics. The author of this essay has identified many critical health problems prevalent in Navajo people, such as unintentional injuries, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. The reasons for the high rates of these types of conditions were also identified. These are socioeconomic and structural inequalities caused by the federal government. Community gardening has been proposed as one of the methods for preventing, diagnosing, and rehabilitating these issues.
References
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