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Annotated Bibliography: Literature Review

All Scholarly

Feagin, Joe, and Zinobia Bennefield. "Systemic Racism And U.S. Health Care." Social Science & Medicine 103.(2014): 7-14. Academic Search Complete.Web. 27 Sept. 2015.

"Systemic Racism and the U.S. Health Care," is a rather expansive article. In this scholarly article, Bennefield, a Texas A&M sociology professor, examines the racism in our health care system. Her article looks at what injustices there are in the treatment and care of African Americans in contrast to Caucasians, and the rationalization of said treatment by our white system. This article will provide examples of the racism there is in the health care system for me, and possible reasons for it, and what led to today's current healthcare situation.

Hambleton, Ian R., et al. "Cause-Of-Death Disparities In The African Diaspora: Exploring Differences Among Shared-Heritage Populations." American Journal Of Public Health 105.(2015): S491. MasterFILE Premier.Web. 27 Sept. 2015.

In Hambleton's scholarly article, "Cause-Of-Death Disparities In The African Diaspora: Exploring Differences Among Shared-Heritage Populations," mortality rates caused by six disease groups are researched. In this study they explored changes in life expectancy rates among African American and African Caribbean Americans, and compared them with other populations as well. This study showed a greater increase in life expectancy in African Americans than African Caribbean Americans. However, this did show a increase in life expectancy in both, although they are still a lot worse expectancies than white Americans. I can maybe use this to argue that there is an improvement going on in America.

Harris, Ricci, et al. "Self-Reported Experience Of Racial Discrimination And Health Care Use In New Zealand: Results From The 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey." American Journal Of Public Health 102.5 (2012): 1012. MasterFILE Premier.Web. 27 Sept. 2015

The article "Self-Reported Experiences of Racial Discrimination and Health Care Use in New Zealand: Results from the 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey," explores the racism problem in New Zealand's health care system. Harris, a public health physician who specializes in racial inequalities, writes on patient self reported racial discrimination. She then questions whether this racism leads to poorer health. I feel this article could be used to support that racism is a problem in the health care industry. Also by pointing out that there is this problem in New Zealand according to the survey in this article it may seem more plausible that there could also be a problem here in the United States.

Lang, Martha E., and Chloe E. Bird. "Understanding And Addressing The Common Roots Of Racial Health Disparities: The Case Of Cardiovascular Disease &Hiv/Aids In African Americans." Health Matrix: Journal Of Law-Medicine 25.(2015): 109. MasterFILE Premier.Web. 27 Sept. 2015.

In Martha E. Langs article, "Understanding and Addressing the Common Roots of Racial Health Disparities: The case of Cardiovascular disease and HIV,AIDS in African Americans," the roots of the health care system are discussed, with emphasis on the history of increases of cardiovascular disease and HIV in African Americans. In the scholarly article the different disparities leading to this statistic are discussed. Once their role in contributing is explained, this article then provides possible steps that could be taken to rectify this problem in the United States. This could come in handy when arguing that African Americans may be segregated against due to increased numbers suffering from these severe diseases. Or, maybe even somehow argue that the increased number of those infected is in part the result of racism in America.

Paradies, Yin, Mandy Truong, and Naomi Priest. "A Systematic Review Of The Extent And Measurement Of Healthcare Provider Racism." JGIM: Journal Of General Internal Medicine 29.2 (2014): 364-387. Academic Search Complete.Web. 27 Sept. 2015.

In this scholarly article, written partially by Paradies, a research fellow at the Centre for Citizenship and Globalization, racisms effects on healthcare are looked at in the interpersonal form, rather than systematical racism like many other articles. This article looks at how health insurance providers may be providing unfair services. It also looks at whether these inequalities are intentional. Although the authors never come to a conclusion due difficulty in finding a way to measure interpersonal racism of healthcare providers, it may still provide some grounds for an argument that there is injustice there. By pointing out that some of the causes of racism are not systematic, I may be able to show why this is such a hard problem to fix in America.

Phelan, Jo C., and Bruce G. Link. "Is Racism A Fundamental Cause Of Inequalities In Health?." Annual Review Of Sociology 41.1 (2015): 311-330. Academic Search Complete.Web. 27 Sept. 2015.

In this co-authored article, the reasons for inequalities in health are examined. Primarily, this article looks at whether race, or social economic status play a larger role in how people are treated by health providers. This article could be helpful in pointing out that race is not the only factor that leads to mistreatment, as well as further defining what mistreatment is in question. Since this article concludes that there is a problem, but social economic status plays a larger role in inequalities, it may be useful in opposing the argument that racism is the biggest contributor, and help to point out that being a minority and being of low social economic status correlate.

Roberts, Wallace. "Death Of A Nursing Home." Crisis (15591573) 121.4 (2014): 24. MasterFILE Premier.Web. 27 Sept. 2015.

Roberts article "Death of a Nursing Home," is a scholarly source, outlining the potential racism in the Medicaid policy, inadvertently leading to nursing home closings. These closing, are primarily in poor neighborhoods where there are predominantly minorities present. Prior to their closings, many of these poor nursing homes where providing poor care for their patients. In one case an African American woman died after only twenty days in a nursing home in Pittsburg. While there she never once received her medications. I believe this information could be very helpful in arguing that there is racism in the health industry, if that is how I choose to argue this essay. Also, this source provides a good exact account of someone who died as a result of this racism, and it provides a lot of history on roots of our health care system as a whole.

Satel, Sally, and Jonathan Klick. "The Problem of Racism in the Health Care System Is Exaggerated." Race Relations.Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Don't Despair over Disparities." Weekly Standard 9 (1 Mar. 2004). Opposing Viewpoints in Context.Web. 27 Sept. 2015.

In this opposing viewpoints style article, the topic of health care disparities for minorities is looked at. One topic they look at is how the severity of the problem was downplayed in a summary of the 2003 HHS report. This decision could support that there are inequalities in the system that politicians do not want to bring awareness to. This article also touches on the actual reasons why doctors may make race based decision or decisions based on factors that correlate with race. Finally it talks about the quality of doctors in low income areas and schooling provided for minority doctors and how these two things effect quality of minority health care. I can use this information to argue that there is obviously a problem if politicians are worried enough to try and hide it. Also this article can be used to provide reasons for racism in healthcare and provide ways to improve health care for minorities such as increased opportunity for minority medical students who are more likely to become doctors in minority neighborhoods.

Shariff-Marco, Salma, Ann C. Klassen, and Janice V. Bowie. "Racial/Ethnic Differences In Self-Reported Racism And Its Association With Cancer-Related Health Behaviors." American Journal Of Public Health 100.2 (2010): 364.MasterFILE Premier. Web. 27 Sept. 2015.

This article, once again like many of the others, looks at surveys on self reported racism. However, this article looks less at whether the healthcare system is racist, and rather these authors look at how racism contributes to future health problems including smoking, alcoholism, and even cancer. This article can be used to explain how racism creates a stressor which often leads to health complications in minorities. Also, it can be used in part to show how health is often worse in the minority population in the United States in general by providing statistics which show this.

Smedley, Brian D., and Hector F. Myers. "Conceptual And Methodological Challenges For Health Disparities Research And Their Policy Implications." Journal Of Social Issues 70.2 (2014): 382-391. Academic Search Complete.Web. 27 Sept. 2015.

In Smedley's article "Conceptual And Methodological Challenges For Health Disparities Research And Their Policy Implications," the ways in which racism affect our health system are discussed with emphasis on how our system allows a lower level of care for African Americans and minorities than white Americans. In this article, Smedley, the co-founder of the National Collaborative for Health Equity, a activist group looking to improve health opportunities for those of color, uses a multitude of other peoples scholarly research, in an attempt to connect the dots in respect to how racism affects the health of minorities. After defining some of the problems, Smedley then suggest policy changes and a alternative way to setting up healthcare which would ratify to some extent the problem with the system. I could use this article to provide many examples of ways in which Africa Americans are hurt by the health care system. Also I may be able to borrow some of his possible solutions to the crisis.