SOCIETY - REDUCING HEALTH INEQUITIES & RACIAL DISPARITIES IN TEEN PREGNANCY WHERE WE ARE
The social determinants of health (SDOH) are life-enhancing resources, such as food supply, housing, economic opportunity, family and social relationships, transportation, education, and health care, whose distribution across populations effectively determines length and quality of life. Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics specifically added racism to the factors affecting the health of adolescents. Several SDOH have been identified as particularly relevant to teen pregnancy and adolescent sexual health behaviors, among them: education and employment opportunities, neighborhood characteristics, community-level economic structures, and access to quality health care. The absence of positive resources has a negative effect on teen pregnancy. Dallas County’s public health hospital, Parkland Hospital, released its Community Health Needs Assessment in 2019, highlighting strong evidence of health disparities that are significant in Dallas County:
1) Dallas County has one of the highest uninsured rates among all urban counties in the nation. This can drive up hospital costs for insured and uninsured alike. 2) Dallas residents have persistently low rates of health literacy, presenting
challenges for people trying to enroll in and use health insurance coverage, adhere to treatment plans and provider instructions, and navigate the health care system. These issues are particularly acute for racial and ethnic minorities, who sometimes find that services are not culturally or linguistically accessible.
3) The most significant health disparities are by race, ethnicity and geographic location
in Dallas County, with African American and people living in ZIP codes in Southeast Dallas experiencing the highest burdens of disease and mortality. The SocioNeeds Index Map below, taken from the Parkland Community Health Assessment in 2019, shows that the zip codes that Ntarupt seeks to work with most closely have been most impacted by historical segregation and inequalities that have become systemic. This impact is seen through the measures of poverty, income, unemployment, occupation, education and language. The darker the coloration on the map, the greater the impact across the six areas.
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