Research topic – Should the United States declare structural racism as a public health crisis?
How much would it cost for a 20-page research paper on this topic, at least 35 references (mostly current journal articles; no more than five years old), and at least 3-5 graphs/charts or tables in APA format?
Of course, it would need to include an abstract, key words, an Introduction (background, research questions, hypothesis), Literature Review, Methods, Findings, Interpretation, and a conclusion. The writer must be proficient in the area of public health (need to include a few public health concepts/theories). Can this be accomplished in 2 weeks?
Below is the research proposal
Structural Racism as a Public Health Crisis
The negative impact of racism on minority ethnic groups is undeniable. In modern society, poor health outcomes, financial instability, and homelessness are higher in racial or ethnic minority groups than in their counterparts. For these reasons, various states have declared racism a public health issue, hoping it is the next step to addressing existing health inequalities. Nevertheless, critics believe such declarations are of no significance and only statements with no reasonable action. This proposal briefly highlights that to receive the attention needed and improve the health of racial minorities, society must recognize racism as a public health crisis.
Background
Racism has been identified as a significant health inequality in the United States public health sector. A study by Ingram and Wallace (2019) revealed strong associations between experiences of racism and depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other negative implications on physical health. Racism in the public health domain was more evident during the Covid-19 period when communities of color lacked access to drugs and oxygen essential for the fight against the virus (Hardeman et al., 2018). The increase in mortality and morbidity rates among racial minorities due to the inaccessibility of healthcare services coupled with the increased police brutality has resulted in various State and municipal administrations and health groups in the country acknowledging racism as a significant issue to the country’s health sector. According to Yearby et al. (2020), as of July 30, 2020, approximately 44 counties and 88 cities in the United States had recognized racism as a public health crisis, with most adopted after recent episodes of police violence against African Americans and other minority groups. It is a great initiative, but several skeptics have emerged with the notion that these declarations will not result in any reasonable action. Therefore, the question remains as to whether or not such interventions will solve the problem and improve the well-being of racial minorities.
Extensive statistical data provides evidence of racism’s negative impact on minority and ethnic groups in the United States. Mendez et al. (2021) explain that racism is referenced as a major source of racial health inequalities in the United States. Recent events have revealed the depths of systematic racism in the U.S., with high-profile killings by police officers causing international and national protests (Khazanchi et al., 2020). Local state and national leaders and healthcare organizations have affirmed racism as a public health crisis (Andrews, 2021). Research reveals that racism subtly creates socioeconomic issues such as poor housing, inadequate education, unemployment, and judicial bias (Khazanchi et al., 2020). These factors influence the predisposition of people of color to healthcare problems such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma, mental health problem, maternal mortality, heat diseases, and stress (Mendez et al., 2021). Along with social health determinants, the named factors drive unavoidable and unfair healthcare inequalities, causing premature deaths and diseases. The Covid-19 pandemic also unearthed the public health issues influenced by racism (Andrews, 2021; Mendez et al., 2021). People of color had inequitable access to care, treatment, testing, and health insurance, along with disproportionate underlying health problems compared to other populations (Khazanchi et al., 2020).
The negative impact of racism on minority ethnic groups is undeniable. In modern society, poor health outcomes, financial instability, and homelessness are higher in racial or ethnic minority groups than in their counterparts. Black people also face higher incarceration rates when compared to Whites (Blankenship et al., 2018). The emergence of COVID-19 and the rise of violence against these minority groups have exhibited racism’s impact on their health. For this reason, various states have declared racism a public health issue, hoping it is the next step to addressing existing health inequalities. Nevertheless, critics believe such declarations are of no significance and only statements with no reasonable action. This proposal briefly highlights that to receive the attention needed and improve the health of racial minorities, society must recognize racism as a public health crisis.
Purpose of study
The study strives to evaluate structural racism in public health by examining its implications on various ethnic minority groups. The researcher will investigate the impacts racism has on public health in the United States and explains how structural racism results in health disparities and inequalities. Thus, the proposal explores the analysis of racism as a public healthcare crisis. The researcher will identify interventions that may be adopted to mitigate health inequality and promote better healthcare and outcomes for racial minorities in the United States.
Aim of study
The research study will aim to:
· Determine the effects of structural racism in public health for people of color.
· Investigate how racism drives health disparities and inequalities in the U.S.
· Identify interventions adopted in the public health sector to reduce and prevent structural racism.
It is to develop recommendations to enhance racial equity while decreasing health disparities in public health. It is also to developed a review of literature outlining a conceptual framework for racial inequality and its impacts on public health.
Importance of Study
The study will demonstrate why the United States should declare racism a public health crisis, although 37 states have already marked the vice as a crisis for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) (Mendez et al., 2021). The findings of this study will be valuable in the declaration of racism as a public health crisis and the formulation of policies and strategic actions to advance racial equity in public health. Further, it will convince city or town councils, education boards, county boards, mayoral/governor boards, school boards, and public health departments to incorporate declarations of racism as a crisis in their statements. The statements and resolutions are not legally enforceable. However, the resolutions are steps toward changing the racism narrative to initiate changes in resource allocation, law, and policy. They present the opportunity to adopt policies that enhance racial equity among communities.
Significance
This study will contribute to the literature on how structural racism adversely affects the health and well-being of people of color. Second, academicians and scholars can use this study to boost their understanding of the evolution of racism from historical times to modern society. Third, the study could help the government and policymakers implement policies and legislation to tackle the existing racial health inequalities and address biases in various systems and institutions, especially in the public health industry. Lastly, this research will raise awareness in the general public over the issues that ethnic or racial minority groups face and what role the community could take to ensure that they help address health inequality and disparities.
Research Questions
· Does structural racism drive health inequities and disparities among racial/ethnic minorities in the United States?
· Is structural racism a public health crisis in the United States?
· Are there governing bodies in the United States that have declared structural racism as a public health crisis?
Preliminary Literature Review
Racism in the Public Health Sector
The socioeconomic problems affecting the minority groups in the country play a big role in promoting health inequalities among the communities. Most ethnic minority groups are subject to low–income jobs, bad working conditions, lack of health insurance coverage and are mainly affected by the social determinants of health. These factors contribute to their inability to access quality healthcare, resulting in higher risks of developing chronic diseases and higher mortality rates (Devakumar et al., 2020). According to Williams et al. (2019), racial residential segregation in the United States has largely contributed to racism in the public health sector. Occupancy of the white population in separate neighborhoods from minority groups such as Black Americans, Hispanics, and Asians has created social institution privileges. Areas occupied by minority groups lack enough health facilities and medical practitioners, negatively impacting their health. The government tends to support private policies that promote discriminatory zoning and restriction of movement, making it difficult to access quality healthcare services (Williams et al., 2019)). The author further explains that segregation among different races can be directly associated with increased mortality rates, shorter life expectancy, and cumulatively higher exposure to chronic diseases.
Structural Racism in Public Health
Addressing structural racism from a public health standpoint is crucial in understanding how this form of racism is a public health crisis. This study will include literature that discusses the existing health inequalities in the American population due to structural racism. For example, certain studies have revealed that the health gap between White individuals and persons from racial or ethnic minority groups can be attributed to shorter life expectancy among the latter group (Krieger et al., 2020). The minority communities are subject to low–income jobs, toxic working conditions, and lack of health insurance coverage and are mainly affected by the social determinants of health. These factors contribute to their inability to access quality healthcare, resulting in higher risks of developing chronic diseases and higher mortality rates (Devakumar et al., 2020).
Government Adaption and Resolution Declaring Structural racism a public health crisis.
Came et al. (2018) point out that the government should formulate and implement various health policies that promote equality in their healthcare systems. Therefore, this study will also include literature that identifies how the United States government has addressed structural racism as a public health issue and the policies and legislation it has implemented. Lastly, the study will incorporate literature highlighting the various states that have declared racism as a public health issue and how it could help the government realize the severity of the problem.
Methodology
This study will adopt a qualitative research methodology. It will identify and evaluate articles from journals indexed by MEDLINE/ Pub MED that discuss the public health sector, racism, public health, health disparities, and inequalities, specifically in the United States. It will also use online search engines such as Google Scholar to identify recent similar articles and primary or secondary studies. The articles will be between 2017 – 2022 to ascertain the credibility of the information and must include structural and institutionalized racism in their abstracts or titles. The study will analyze the contents of the chosen articles using a systematic literature review and incorporate related concepts and terms.
Findings
The study hopes to discover that structural racism is a significant public health issue in the United States. It is expected that these sources will highlight the various ways that racism has constrained the ability of persons from racial or ethnic minority groups to access the needed healthcare. Also, the materials will reveal the increased health disparities between these minorities and the rest of the population. The study also hopes to identify the role of the government in addressing racism as a public health issue. The sources will exhibit the various steps taken by the government, including the states’ declaration and policies implemented to ascertain that racism is a public health crisis. Overall, the data collected from the sources will answer the research questions identified above.
Discussion and Recommendation
Ethnic and racial minority patients receive low-intensity and quality diagnostic and healthcare services. These findings can be supported by the articles reviewed. The socioeconomic characteristics of the minority groups, such as level of education, income level, insurance sectors, and clinical factors, are determined by their appearance and the institutions involved (Dordunno et al., 2022). Racial groups are also subject to inferior medical procedures and medicine, thus supporting the hypothesis that structural racism is a public health crisis.
There is an urgent need for State and municipal governments across the United States to recognize and declare structural racism as a public health crisis. Governments should formulate and implement various health policies that promote equality in their healthcare systems (Came et al., 2018). Creating awareness about health issues is also critical in closing the gap between minority groups’ healthcare and the White population. Increased financial allocations to the country’s health sector can also be implemented to mitigate social determinants of health among minority groups to promote easier access to quality healthcare.
The study will evaluate whether the research findings have addressed the highlighted study questions. Based on the results, it will summarize how structural racism has emerged as a health crisis in the United States. It will discuss how racism has played a role in the existing health disparities and inequalities among racial monitories. It will also summarize the various resolutions the government set forth, including declaring structural racism as a public health crisis in certain states. Other than discussing the findings, the study will offer recommendations to improve future studies on this subject matter. Most importantly, these recommendations will address the urgent need for State and municipal governments across the United States to recognize and declare structural racism as a public health crisis.
Conclusion
Structural racism has been identified as a critical health inequality within the public health sector. People of color experience inferior healthcare services compared to their white counterparts. The problem has increased the risk of minority groups suffering from chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Additionally, the issue has increased adult, infant, and maternal mortality rates among minority groups due to a lack of healthcare services based on their ethnic, and cultural background and appearance. Based on previous research, the health gaps between the white population and people of color can be attributed to shorter life expectancy among the latter group (Krieger et al., 2020). Racism can also be associated with the increased prevalence of social determinants of health among minority communities. To mitigate the problem, declarations should be made to recognize structural racism as a public health crisis.
The study will summarize the entire research content, highlighting the critical points from each section. Based on this content, the study will conclude that structural racism is a public health issue and make a call to action for the government and other relative authorities in the healthcare industry. Furthermore, the researcher will identify limitations the study may have and identify areas of improvement that future researchers could consider to improve the quality of their findings and analysis.
References
Andrews, K. (2021). Racism is the public health crisis. The Lancet, 397(10282), 1342-1343. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)007753
Blankenship, K. M., del Rio Gonzalez, A. M., Keene, D. E., Groves, A. K., & Rosenberg, A. P. (2018). Mass incarceration, race inequality, and Health: Expanding concepts and assessing impacts on well-being. Social Science & Medicine, 215, 45–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.08.042
Came, H., Doole, C., McKenna, B., & McCreanor, T. (2018). Institutional racism in public health contracting: Findings of a nationwide survey from New Zealand. Social Science & Medicine, 199, 132–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.06.002
Devakumar, D., Selvarajah, S., Shannon, G., Muraya, K., Lasoye, S., Corona, S., Paradies, Y., Abubakar, I., & Achiume, E. T. (2020). Racism, the public health crisis we can no longer ignore. The Lancet, 395(10242), e112–e113. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31371-4
Hardeman, R. R., Murphy, K. A., Karbeah, J. M., & Kozhimannil, K. B. (2018). Naming institutionalized racism in the public health literature: A systematic literature review. Public Health Reports, 133(3), 240–249. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033354918760574
Khazanchi, R., Evans, C. T., & Marcelin, J. R. (2020). Racism, not race, drives inequity across the COVID-19 continuum. JAMA network open, 3(9), e2019933-e2019933. Doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.1993
Krieger, N., Van Wye, G., Huynh, M., Waterman, P. D., Maduro, G., Li, W., Gwynn, R. C., Barbot, O., & Bassett, M. T. (2020). Structural racism, historical redlining, and risk of preterm birth in New York City, 2013–2017. American Journal of Public Health, 110(7), 1046–1053. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2020.305656
Ingram, L., & Wallace, B. (2019). It creates fear and divides us: Minority college students’ experiences of stress from racism, coping responses, and recommendations for colleges. Journal of Health Disparities Research & Practice, 12(1), 80–113, http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/jhdrp/
Mendez, D. D., Scott, J., Adodoadji, L., Toval, C., McNeil, M., & Sindhu, M. (2021). Racism as public health crisis: assessment and review of municipal declarations and resolutions across the United States. Frontiers in public health, 1142. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.68680
Yearby, R., Lewis, C. N., Gilbert, K. L., & Banks, K. (2020). Racism is a public health crisis: Here is how to respond. The Justice Collaborative Institute. 1–10. https://ihje.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Racism-is-a-Public-Health-Crisis.pdf
