By forming an interdisciplinary team to tackle individuals’ specific needs and the behavioral, environmental, and social factors that contribute to their overall health, a population health practice strives to enhance the well-being and medical needs of a specific population. Cases of illness or injury within a population constitute a difficulty in population health practice. The paper aims to investigate the population’s health problems and possible solutions.
It also aims to identify the health practice issues plaguing a specific group and to outline interventions that can be implemented to mitigate their consequences. It will do so by discussing the key areas: the practice problems which affect the selected population, epidemiology assessments that can be used to confront the practice problem, measurable goals that can help accomplish health 2030 goals, evidence-based intervention that can aid in accomplishing objectives and goals, and an assessment of the mentioned intervention.
Population
African Americans in Jackson, Mississippi, were chosen as the study population. Jackson is the largest city in Mississippi, located in both Hinds and Rankin counties. By 2021, the population of Jackson city had risen to 149,761 (United States Census Bureau, 2022).
82% of the population was black, whereas the white share was 16.54 percent, the Asian share was 0.32 percent, and the other racial and ethnic groups comprised 0.29 percent (United States Census Bureau, 2022). Jackson city has a poverty rate of about 25.42 percent and a median income of about $55,850.
The average monthly rental cost in recent years has been $847. In Jackson’s early years, the population grew to a peak of almost 200 000. Nonetheless, recent censuses show that the population has dropped for several years. People have left the city for the surrounding suburbs, explaining the downturn. African Americans in Jackson, Mississippi, face inequities in health care, economic hardship, and a lack of educational opportunity due to these three causes.
Practice Problem
Concerns about racial health disparities in healthcare are the most pressing issue affecting African Americans in Jackson city, and this is a vital national practice problem. Recent research from the Jackson Heart Study has linked racial health inequalities to the rise in hypertension and heart disease in African Americans. It has been hypothesized that the persistent anxiety caused by racial health disparities is a factor in the development of hypertension.
Jackson Heart found that whereas black patients received care without respect to their health issues or necessities, white patients were more likely to be admitted to facilities that only serve white people as urgent cases (NLHBI, 2019). This action affects the client’s reaction to the healthcare professionals, which may later be responsible for the individuals’ lack of trust, dissatisfaction, and unfavorable perception of the practitioners.
It affects people’s day-to-day lives, relationships, and places they can comfortably visit. Their options and choices are impacted. When people are discriminated against based on their religion, gender, race, ethnicity, or sexuality, it results in racial health disparities.
Epidemiology
When it comes to public health, studying racial health inequalities is crucial but often ignored. Disparities in health care for people of different races, ages, sexes, and other demographics have severe consequences for people’s physical and mental well-being (Brown et al., 2022). The negative impacts of racial health disparities have complicated causes, repercussions, and potential solutions.
Discrimination and other structural racism contribute to racial health inequalities (Brown et al., 2022). Epidemiologists can reduce racial health inequalities by focusing on socioeconomic determinants of health, using a life-span approach, and creating culturally appropriate solutions (Schillinger, 2020).
Performing population-based studies on factors like residential environment and mortality risk are examples of measures. For instance, because they are less l