Explain what is the cause of the health disparities in US?

Health Disparities

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Introduction
Health disparities in US have been growing over the recent years. There have been quite a large number of people with limited or no health insurance. Therefore, this prevents them from receiving adequate health care so they receive medication at high costs. Moreover, due to failure to secure health insurance they are unable to receive medication and the use of preventive measures such as diets and exercise. According to Dr Jocelyn Elders, America is ranked first in the high costs of health care and the growing health disparities are alarming. Despite the fact that the US has the best nurses and doctors, many Americans suffer from chronic diseases such as heart conditions and diabetes. Health is also determined by where a person lives, works and plays (Schuster, Elliott et al, 2012). Researchers argued that the social rank of individuals in the society determines how healthy they will be. Where individuals are exposed to chronic stress there are high chances of health disparities. Public health experts explain why there is a wide gap in poor society that lacks pharmacies, grocery stores and parks.
Research questions
The research will answer the following general questions; what is the cause of the health disparities in US? The following question will also be answered. What impact does health insurance have on the health disparities in US? How has poverty and chronic stress contributed to the health disparities in the US?
Research objective
The general objective of the study is to investigate the causes of health disparities in US. The research will also evaluate the impact of health insurance on the health situation in US. Finally, the study will explain how poverty and chronic stress contributes to these disparities.
Hypotheses
H1o: Health insurance does not have an impact on health disparities.
H1A: Health insurance has an impact on health disparities
H2o: Poverty and chronic stress does not contribute to health disparities
H2A: Poverty and chronic stress contribute to health disparities.
Research design
The research will adopt a descriptive research design as a primary method. The goal of the research is to describe health disparities in the US. The research will also adopt an exploratory research design to explain the causes of health disparities in US. This design will help to build a descriptive research design. Qualitative research will not be effective without the quantitative bit. This is because our study should use numbers to explain the expanse of health disparities in the US. The research needs to use statistics from government and health insurance companies to test our hypothesis.
Target population
Our target population is governments, health insurance employees, patients and the doctors. The participants will be recruited from both private and public hospitals. The participants need to be resourceful with the information about the health disparities in order to add value to our study. The factors that determine the sample size include the types of variables to be used. Another factor is the budget size in terms of financial and human resources. If the budget is large, then the sample size will be too high to be reliable (Lu, Hajifathalian, Ezzati, Rimm &Danaei, 2014). The sample size will be determined by nature of the information required by the study.
Data collection procedures
Data collection refers to the process of gathering and measuring data on variables of interest in an established and systematic way that enables us to get answers on research questions, test hypotheses so as to evaluate the outcome. This study will focus on the secondary sources of data. They include government health websites, internet materials, books, journal articles, research reports and newspaper articles. The online research data will use directories, search engines and fora.
Secondary sources of data are the most appropriate methods since the degree of accuracy of these sources is high and it also saves time since the data is available at all times. The data present on these secondary sources will show the number of unhealthy individuals that are unable to access health care in US. The data given will be classified under the causes of health disparities. The data will also show the number of people who have secured health insurance and their health status compared to those who do not have health insurance (Cooper, Ortega, Ammerman & Williams et al, 2015). However, the researcher will also use primary sources to ensure that this data is correct.
The study will ensure that data obtained can be relied on by getting it from different sources and comparing if there are any deviations.The study will also adopt primary sources of data to increase the quality and reliability of data. The data received from more than one source and is the same is assumed to be of high quality and can be relied upon. Mostly, the researcher will get the data from health insurance and government offices.

Ethics
The research will adopt high ethics in the research by ensuring that the data received is treated with a high degree of confidential. The research will also not to misrepresent the nature of the study to subjects. The research will also maintain its objectivity. It will maintain the researches opinion, assumption, expectations and biasness should be made explicit and remain non-intrusive. The study requires a high degree of ethics since the issue of health is sensitive to individuals and many people want it to be privacy.

References
Cooper, L. A., Ortega, A. N., Ammerman, A. S., Buchwald, D., Paskett, E. D., Powell, L. H., … & Williams, D. R. (2015). Calling for a bold new vision of health disparities intervention research.American Journal of Public Health, (0), e1-e3.
Lu, Y., Hajifathalian, K., Ezzati, M., Rimm, E., &Danaei, G. (2014). Abstract P163: Racial Disparities In Coronary Heart Disease Risk Among United States Adults. Circulation, 129(Suppl 1), AP163-AP163.
Schuster, M. A., Elliott, M. N., Kanouse, D. E., Wallander, J. L., Tortolero, S. R., Ratner, J. A., … &Banspach, S. W. (2012). Racial and ethnic health disparities among fifth-graders in three cities.New England journal of medicine, 367(8), 735-745.