Diabetes in the African American Community Today
Diabetes became one of the most serious chronic diseases in the world today. In the United States, however, one of the most vulnerable communities to this illness is the African Americans. Generally, the screening for diabetes "in an American Indian, Mexican American, or African-American adult population should produce a higher predictive value than screening the general adult population" (Harkness, & DeMarco, 2012, p. 81). The reason for such high level of disease among the African Americans is connected to the combination of the external factors and the genetic predisposition, which can affect the development of diabetes in the future. From the nursing perspective, the effective prevention programs are needed to be created and distributed among the African American population because diabetes belongs to the diseases, which become chronic after their appearing, and more money would be spent on the treatment.
Background
At the moment, type-2 diabetes belongs to one of the leading diseases that cause the early death of the citizens of the United States, and more than 7% of the population in the country have this chronic illness (Davis-Smith et al., 2007). The rates are really high and they represent the fact that diabetes has become the real problem for the American nation. What is also significant, “although an estimated 18.8 million has been diagnosed, some 7.0 million are not aware they have the disease” (Harkness, & DeMarco, 2012, p. 323). The specifically high rates are perceived among the population of the elderly people and the representatives of the African American community of the country. Moreover, diabetes is dangerous for health not only because of its direct consequences but also due to the indirect ones. They include “2-4 fold increased the risk for cardiovascular, peripheral vascular disease and stroke” (Davis-Smith et al., 2007, p. 440). These outcomes are the factors that increase the risk for the lethal outcomes and the death rates among the people, who have this illness. One of the most effective methods for diagnosing the diabetes is screening, and in most of the public healthcare facilities, it is the responsibility of the nurse to explain the results of the screening test for the patients (Harkness, & DeMarco, 2012). It can help to understand the most significant indicators and develop the individual program for treatment, which is significant in the case of each particular patient.
Diabetes in the African American Community: Statistics and Outcomes
In the study of the chronic diseases, the rates of which are extremely high in the United States of American, the racial and ethnic factors should be taken into account. At the moment, the statistical data of the recent studies underline that adult African American citizens “are 50% to 100% more likely to have diabetes than are Whites, with evidence that diabetes precursors may even be more common in African American than in White children” (Signorello et al., 2007, p. 2260). These numbers are really high and can lead to a suggestion that there are some factors within the …
