Demographics in Health Care

Demographics

Heather Satterfield

HCS /490

May 10, 2012

Diedra Sawyer

Demographics

In health care there are a lot of factors to take into consideration when you are addressing the community. The demographics of a community are constantly changing and it is important to know the demographic to effectively send a message. With each different demographic there is a different marketing strategy. An example of a demographic is a young population of underserved Caucasian and African American women.

With the young and underserved Caucasian and African American demographic there are a lot of similarities but also there are differences. It is very important to know the difference in the two. As with any young population there is a level of being withdrawn from peers and having a sense of independence. Independence in this instance can have a definition of being stubborn and feeling as though one is untouchable and invincible. Health care needs are not the most important needs to be met in a young demographic. There are exceptions to the rule; however, this is by far the majority of the mindset for this part of the demographic that is discussed. When someone is underserved it can have many meanings. There are some that are considered to be underserved that do have some sort of medical coverage. However, the said medical coverage in most cases is at a high out of pocket cost or only is accepted at certain facilities. When looking at the rest of the demographic of Caucasian and African American women there are some differences in risk for disease. For example, an African American woman is more likely to die from breast cancer than a Caucasian woman even though the rate for breast cancer is higher for the Caucasian woman. Studies have shown that often times the tumor in an African American woman will be more aggressive and will have a poorer prognosis (Society, 2010). For the young demographic there is a higher instance rate of breast cancer in...