African- Americans in the United States are amongst the minority groups with the highest prevalence of cancer burden. Specifically, black Americans have consequently shown the highest death rate, which is influenced by the lowest survival rate among all the minorities living with cancer. According to DeSantis et al. (2019), about 73,000 black were expected to die in 2019 with approximately more than 200,000 new cases of cancer. The rising number of blacks with cancer and the highest death rate among those patients is believed to be due to the various healthcare provision barriers among minority groups in the US. Different measures have been implemented, and new ones continue to surface to reduce these possible inequality factors that continue to hinder equal and quality healthcare provision among minorities, specifically blacks. A measure has been set up on releasing a three-year report from the American Cancer Society. It is meant to show the number of new cancer cases and deaths. For such actions to be successful, it is important to understand the underlying reasons hindering the black community from accessing cancer services.
Potential Barriers among African-Americans
Despite numerous trials and significant progress by the government in addressing the gap towards the provision of services in the healthcare sector in the US, it is evident that not everyone is benefiting equally. As a worker in Radiation/Oncology outpatient hospital in the United States, it is evident that blacks continue to list high death rates among all the minorities for most cancer patients. Following a report by Cavallo (2017), the number of deaths among the black community has risen by 24% in black men and 14% in women than their whites counterparts since 2012.
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Potential barriers in health care that affect minority groups have continued to augment the inequality gap in cancer care. Lack of proper awareness has worsened the matter since the majority of blacks have little to no education (Noonan, Velasco-Mondragon, & Wagner, 2016). Some of the most common barriers include accessibility, availability/affordability, appropriateness, accountability, acceptability, awareness, attitudes, approachability, additional services, alternative practices, and practitioners. Poverty or low socioeconomic status is highly connected to accessibility, availability, and affordability of high quality care among blacks (Noonan, Velasco-Mondragon, & Wagner, 2016). Most African-Americans live in poor estates with limitations to work and certain services. They have less opportunity to acquire jobs with high paying income that can, in turn, enable them to access quality care. Cancer screening and treatment are expensive, which contributes greatly to late-stage diagnosis and disparate treatment. Accessibility to radiation/oncology outpatient care also arises from language differences since there are fewer blacks in this specialty.
Additionally, despite blacks accounting for 13% of the US population, only 2% of blacks work in Oncology (Cavallo, 2017). This makes it difficult for blacks to access and experience a sense of acceptability in the healthcare industry. Lacking more members of minorities in the oncology department eliminates the appropriateness of services provided, according to black Americans. The low number makes blacks lack a sense of trust and comfort since they have to be served by professionals who do not share the same values. Finally, acceptability has been another issue affecting cancer treatment among black Americans since it is a country highly associated with issues of racism and discrimination (DeSantis et al., 2019). Black Americans feel isolated and rejected, limiting their chances of accessing quality healthcare services required in the treatment and management of cancer.
Ways of Addressing the Barriers
Despite numerous studies on the barriers towards disparity in cancer treatment among minorities in the US, little efforts have been directed to finding effective measures of addressing these barriers. It means a thorough study of intervention should be undertaken to ensure the effective provision of healthcare to underserved communities (Noonan, Velasco-Mondragon, & Wagner, 2016). The measures should be implemented and monitored every two years to assess if they produce the desired outcomes. For instance, the studies should consider the basis on which black members choose to be served by a provider of their racial background. It will help establish the need for an increasing number of physicians in the oncology department (Cavallo, 2017). Employing more blacks in the oncology department will help address acceptability and appropriateness among the services provided. Another way to address the issue of awareness and attitudes is to educate both patients and physicians on the need to study cultural differences between races. Educational campaigns will enable African-Americans to avoid beliefs preventing them from accessing cancer services (DeSantis et al., 2019). The process of educating members of minorities and physicians can be done through the help of influential members of the community who can be used to spread the correct, updated, and valid information to the targeted audience.
Conclusion
This research has shown that there is a wide disparity between blacks and whites when it comes to cancer care due to the various barriers such as poverty level. Some of the proposed ways of addressing some of the barriers like awareness and accessibility include education and employment of more minorities in the workforce in addition to socioeconomic support from the government. It is a good indication that most of these barriers are potentially modifiable hence requiring future efforts to reduce disparities among cancer patients. Therefore, those in the cancer patient's care should focus on eliminating the disparities among minorities and all other underserved populations in the United States.
References
Cavallo, J. (2017). Increasing Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Oncology Workforce. HSP News Service, L.L.C . https://www.ascopost.com/issues/october-10-2017/increasing-racial-and-ethnic-diversity-in-the-oncology-workforce/
DeSantis, C. E., Miller, K. D., Goding Sauer, A., Jemal, A., & Siegel, R. L. (2019). Cancer statistics for African Americans, 2019. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 69 (3), 211-233. https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21555
Noonan, A. S., Velasco-Mondragon, H. E. & Wagner, F. A. (2016). Improving the health of African Americans in the USA: An overdue opportunity for social justice. Public Health Review, 37 . https://doi.org/10.1186/s40985-016-0025-4
