There are multiple factors that can influence medications. One of such factors includes culture. Various cultures have their own unique ways of living and beliefs regarding the prevention and cure of diseases. The cultural background of a patient usually plays a significant role in the influence of medical administration. Additionally, some cultures tend to have easier access to medications unlike others. As a result, such aspects have an absolute influence on medications.
Impact on Medical Preparation for a Particular Culture
For instance, the African American culture is one of the communities that believe that their health is fate dependent. This is due to a cultural factor such as poverty, which has profoundly affected members of the African American community. Social racism plays a greater role in poverty among African Americans. For a long time, social racism has been described as a determinant of human traits of a certain community. Virtually, racism affects various factors in in health disparities. Notably, racism is correlated to poverty. This explains why most of the African Americans are low-income families. As a result, poverty has affected medical preparation of the African Americans since many families usually reside in areas with unequal allocation of resources. Thus, they have access to sub-standard housing conditions, education, and employment (Belgrave& Allison, 2018). Hence, they lack the basic human needs that are major determinants of good health such as nutrition, clean water, and healthcare. Due to lack of major health determinants, they are unable to prepare adequately for a healthy living.
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Impacts on Medical Administration
Poverty among the African Americans also has an adverse impact on medical administration among the community. African American community has continuously been segregated within the medical profession. Most members of the African American cultural group are usually unable to afford funds for medical checkups and purchase of medications prescribed by doctors (Belgrave & Allison, 2018). The subjects do not usually view themselves as poorer in health. Hence, they usually fail to seek medical attention, when it is needed. In addition, African Americans are unable to access medical facilities. The financial instability among African Americans also leads to a huge number of uninsured children. Thus, this increases infant mortality and morbidity rates. Further, neighborhoods occupied by African Americans often have fewer resources such as hospitals thus reducing the chances of access to health care. Besides, over the last few decades, African Americans have experienced higher risk of attaining diseases such as heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer (Belgrave & Allison, 2018). The treatment of these diseases is expensive and since few African Americans can afford, they experience high death rates.
Potential Adverse Reactions
The potential reaction of poverty among the African Americans is continuous exposure to diseases such as psychiatric disorders (Belgrave & Allison, 2018). This is caused by the extreme conditions that they live in, which exposes them to a risk for mental health illness. For instance, a huge number of African Americans are homeless, incarcerated, while a considerable number are victims of serious violent crimes. In addition, due to poverty, such people tend to have limited access to mental health care. Further, older African Americans tend to suffer from hypertension (Belgrave & Allison, 2018). This prompts them to use biomedicine and spiritual medicine for pain management. A higher rate of African Americans adults suffer from hypertension when compared to other ethnic groups since the high rates of poverty among the group causes barriers to disease treatment. Moreover, the treatment of hypertension requires various lifestyle medications such as improved diet, alcohol moderation, and stress reduction. However, very few African Americans can afford such lifestyle recommendations and medication.
Possible Issue in Adherence to Medication Regimen
African Americans usually have lower rates of adherence to treatment and medication than other ethnic groups. Further, this tends to affect elderly African Americans. A research shows that an approximate of 50% of members of African Americans do not take medications for diseases such as chronic illnesses as prescribed by caregivers (Pettey, McSweeney, Stewart, Cleves & Souder, 2016). Mainly, members are affected by chronic illnesses that require multiple illnesses. However, this can be overcome through various methods. The first step to improve adherence among the African Americans is by conducting a comprehensive evaluation on the prescribed medications taken by the members (Pettey, McSweeney, Stewart, Cleves & Souder, 2016). After which, the caregivers should enhance health literacy by explaining the purposes of therapeutic medications. Finally, caregivers should enhance an inter-professional collaboration between patients and providers.
References
Belgrave, F. Z. & Allison, K. W. (2018) . African American psychology: From Africa to America .New York: Sage Publications.
Pettey, C. M., McSweeney, J. C., Stewart, K. E., Cleves, M.A. & Souder, E. (2016).African Americans’ Perceptions of Adherence to Medications and Lifestyle Changes Prescribed to Treat Hypertension. SAGE Journals , 6(1): 10.
