Respond to the following discussion post. References to be no older than 5 years.
[Mandeep Kaur]
The morbidity of diabetes among African Americans was 13 % in 2018 (National Institutes of Health, 2018). This morbidity is high among the blacks as opposed to the whites; according to the National Institute of Health (2018), there are more black people with diabetes than 66 more people in 1,000 compared to their white counterparts. The CDC supported these statistics that African Americans have the highest morbidity and mortality related to diabetes (CDC, 2022).
The mortality of African Americans caused by diabetes was found to be 41.49 between 2008 and 2012 (National Institutes of Health, 2018). This mortality was 2.29 folds of the mortality of the whites, which was found to be 18.27 at the same time (National Institutes of Health, 2018). There is a health behavior that African Americans can adopt to reduce the morbidity and hence the mortality secondary to diabetes.
Healthy behavior that can reduce diabetes is majorly related to lifestyle. For example, weight loss through engaging in physical activities. Another healthy behavior is eating a balanced diet with fewer animal products and more vegetables to lower cholesterol (National Institutes of Health, 2018). In addition, learning stress management and seeking counselor help when having stress also reduces the propensity of developing diabetes.
Numerous risk factors predispose African Americans to diabetes. For instance, genetic predisposition, sedentary lifestyle, leading a stressful life, and excessive consumption of alcohol (HHS.com, 2021). These risk factors are aggravated by the disparity in access to health services due to low-income African Americans, which delays diagnosis and hinders good prognosis (Campbell & Egede, 2019.
Engaging in physical activity is the promotion campaign of wellness against diabetes that can have maximum outcomes among African Americans. Physical exercise will ensure that the excess calories are used up instead of being stored as fats, which predisposes and worsens African Americans to diabetes. However, physical exercise does not resolve the case for genetically predisposed people (Palmer et al., 2020).
References
Campbell, J. A., & Egede, L. E. (2019). Individual-, community-, and health system–level barriers to optimal type 2 diabetes care for inner-city African Americans: An integrative review and model development. The Diabetes Educator, 46(1), 11-27. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145721719889338
CDC. (2022, January 24). The facts, stats, and impacts of diabetes. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/library/spotlights/diabetes-facts-stats.html
HHS.com. (2021, March 1). Diabetes and African Americans – The Office of Minority Health. Not Found. https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=18
National Institutes of Health. (2018, January 23). Factors Contributing to Higher Incidence of Diabetes for Black Americans. National Institutes of Health (NIH). https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/factors-contributing-higher-incidence-diabetes-black-americans
Palmer, K., Rivers, P., Melton, F., McClelland, J., Hatcher, J., Marrero, D. G., Thomson, C., & Garcia, D. O. (2020). Protocol for a systematic review of health promotion interventions for African Americans delivered in US barbershops and hair salons. BMJ Open, 10(4), e035940. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035940
