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Healthcare Disparities
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Healthcare Disparities Among Senior Citizens
Healthcare disparities among senior citizens represent a critical challenge facing many
societies today. Providing affordable quality healthcare to older adults has remained a noble
course since the world has seen a rise in the aging population. Indeed, Inadequate insurance and
more expenditure on health advancements in ways of receiving health care have affected the
elderly population. However, healthcare disparities still exist, affecting the health and well-being
of many older persons. Social and economic status, racism and ethnicity, gender, and digital
necessitate the healthcare disparity among the elderly population but can be minimized through
community programs and Medicare coverage.
Socioeconomic status influences the healthcare disparity for the elderly population.
Senior citizens belong to low socioeconomic status and, thus, experience worse overall health,
higher levels of morbidity, and more premature mortality (Zhang et al., 2019). Older people
struggle to afford necessary medications, medical treatments, or preventive care. Likewise,
senior citizens usually live in rural areas and frequently struggle with a shortage of healthcare
facilities and specialists, leading to delayed diagnoses and treatment. Such results in a low
healthcare delivery to these populations, compared to the young populations.
Racial and ethnic disparities also persist among senior populations. In the United States,
for example, minority populations encounter poor health outcomes, resulting in higher rates of
mortality. According to Hamel et al. (2024), among people on Medicare aged 65 years and older,
Black and Hispanic adults are more likely than White adults to report moderately poor health,
higher rates of chronic disorders like hypertension, higher rates of hospital admissions, and
higher tendency of receiving care from lowest-rated hospitals. These disparities are entrenched in
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complex historical and systemic factors, such as long-standing education, employment, and
housing inequities that impact health over a lifetime.
Gender can also influence healthcare access and outcomes for seniors. Older women,
who typically live longer than men, often face unique challenges. Women aged 65 years and
above have less access to healthcare services than males of the same age. Nair et al. (2021)
indicate that older women are more vulnerable to mental health problems, elder abuse, and
experiencing a lower quality of sexual life. However, this population has lower access to
healthcare services and receives low-quality long-term care compared to men of the same age.
Women face lower retirement income resulting from career breaks or wage differences, which
results in their inability to meet healthcare costs. These variations in socioeconomic status justify
why older women receive fewer admissions into healthcare than older men.
The digital divide presents a growing concern as healthcare increasingly relies on
technology. Many older people cannot comprehend how to use digital media to reach primary
health care due to their ineptitude with digital technologies. Finkelstein, Wu, & Brennan-Ing
(2023) discovered that possessing ICT devices does not provide satisfactory digital access and
interaction. Research has pointed out that older adults have a lower level of digital literacy and
lesser effectiveness, coupled with less success in optimizing goals and addressing needs with
Internet use than young adults. Such potentially excludes them from telehealth services, online
health information, and electronic health records, resulting in low access to healthcare services
via digital tools.
Nevertheless, policy interventions can be used to address the challenge of disparities
among the elderly population. For example, increasing the scope provided under Medicare and
increasing the availability of preventative care is necessary. Strategies to improve the cultural
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sensitivity of workers in the healthcare profession, as well as the recruitment of persons from
various racial and ethnic groups, can go a long way in solving the issues. Thus, community-
based initiatives can link and contribute to health promotion, early detection, and support for
people to access appropriate care (Alderwick et al., 2021). This means that telehealth initiatives
adopted with the right technology to access and in a manner that the elderly population can
comfortably utilize will likely enhance access to care, especially in rural settings.
In conclusion, healthcare disparity concerns are attributed mainly to the problems of SES,
racial and ethnic bias, gender factors, and the digital divide, affecting the health and well-being
of the aging population. Health systems and policy research must solve problems collaboratively
with the help of healthcare systems, policymakers, and communities to overcome these
challenges. Some of the approaches included are increasing the range of Medicare, increasing
opportunities in preventive health care services, improving the cultural competence of the health
care system, reducing the digital divide, and working on the social aspects of health.
Community-based programs and telehealth projects are viable solutions to the problem of access
to appropriate care in specific regions or for particular populations if adequately managed. Thus,
the quality of life of aging populations can be boosted considerably by contributing to achieving
the goal of providing equal access to quality healthcare services for all elderly.
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References
Alderwick, H., Hutchings, A., Briggs, A., & Mays, N. (2021). The impacts of collaboration
between local health care and non-health care organizations and factors shaping how they
work: a systematic review of reviews. BMC Public Health, 21, 1-16.
Finkelstein, R., Wu, Y., & Brennan-Ing, M. (2023). Older adults' experiences using information
and communication technology and tech support services in New York City: findings and
recommendations for post-pandemic digital pedagogy for older adults. Frontiers in
Psychology, 14, 1129512. [Link]
Hamel L., Gonzalez-Barrera A., Presiado M., Ochieng N., Cubanski J., and Neuman T. (2024).
Five Facts About Older Adults' Health Care Experiences by Race and Ethnicity.
[Link]
experiences-by-race-ethnicity/
Nair, S., Sawant, N., Thippeswamy, H., & Desai, G. (2021). Gender Issues in the Care of
Elderly: A Narrative Review. Indian journal of psychological medicine, 43(5 Suppl),
S48–S52. [Link]
Zhang, C. Q., Chung, P. K., Zhang, R., & Schüz, B. (2019). Socioeconomic Inequalities in Older
Adults' Health: The Roles of Neighborhood and Individual-Level Psychosocial and
Behavioral Resources. Frontiers in public health, 7, 318.
[Link]