StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Hypertension among Vietnamese Americans - Research Paper Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "Hypertension among Vietnamese Americans" shows that hypertension prevalence among Vietnamese Americans is on the rise because of the adoption of western lifestyles. Efforts should be directed towards carrying out a targeted drive to bring down the risk of hypertension occurrence…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER97.1% of users find it useful
Hypertension among Vietnamese Americans
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Hypertension among Vietnamese Americans"

Hypertension among Viet se Americans Viet se Americans are currently faced with the risk of hypertension; this would mean increased vulnerability to being stroke victims. Second in the list of death cause among Vietnamese is cardiovascular disease. Restricted access to health care, lack of know how regarding health, customary health believes and damaged physician –patient communication are significant health linked drawbacks facing the population. Introduction Studies conducted in the years 1978 to 1985 and from 1991 came to a conclusion that a woman of Vietnam origin had the highest rate of hypertension as compared to other women Asian American racial group. Americans of Vietnam descent make up the Asian subgroup in the United States of America with fastest population growth rate. Most of them are foreign born and about 55% have restricted English proficiency. This Asian subgroup is characterized by low employment rates, educational level and low self-categorized health. They also have marked health disparities including but not limited to highest liver-cancer and cervical occurrences1 Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease Past studies have recorded low prevalence of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases among citizen of Vietnamese American descent. However, hypertension which is commonly known as high blood pressure (HBP) has been a rising problem among Vietnamese Americans owing to fast varying life-styles and eating habits2.According to a descriptive study of 201 Vietnamese found out that about 44% were hypertensive. Highest contribution came from uncontrolled alcohol use, change in feeding habits, smoking, and lack of exercise. Vietnamese in U.S have changed their earlier eating habits and adapted consumption of soft drinks and fruit juices. Among the Vietnamese teenagers, consumption of pizzas, steak, ice cream, deep fried chicken, sodas and milk have over taken traditional foods. Large numbers of Vietnamese American are now turning to consuming foods with high fat and little fiber content. Adapting eating habits have been influenced by modern times and instead of traditional plant and fish based food diets, majority of people opt for foods with additional animal proteins / fats and processed carbohydrates. Emphases on vegetables in the diet have been watered down due to the increasing acculturation. However, to stress the significance of culture maintenance, it is good to advocate for dietary education. Stressing on consumption of dairy food for healthy and strong bones is recommended. Cultural food such as soy milk, dry fish and broccoli are a rich source of calcium 3. A contributing factor to the problem is inadequate health knowledge among Vietnamese Americans just like other present immigrant groups. As a result of this, their capability to acquire, process and comprehend information associated to their disease is limited. The high illiteracy levels among the Vietnamese Americans which in return would mean lack of understanding regarding the risk factors linked to heart disease. A good number of Vietnamese believe that death occurring as a result of heart disease is instead caused by bad fortune that brought by “bad wind”. Existence of two contrasting but complementary believes in two kinds of medicine, with current medicine considered curative, stronger and faster and on the other hand folk medicine considered preventive, weaker and slower in nature. Modern medicines are also considered too “hot” matched up to herbal or folk medicines. It is worth noting that Vietnamese relies on both types of medicine, with none of the group specified to treat hypertension or cardiovascular4 . Program such as those directed towards educating the Vietnamese American population and health professionals would therefore represent a great chance to enhance the general understanding and avoidance. This would go along way in imparting relevant knowledge on what is categorize as for instance, a positive symptom of heart attack or stroke and may be the way out in seeking help when any of the positive symptoms are detected in good time. Unlike other Americans, Vietnamese Americans are less expected to be conscious of hypertension or opt for treatment. A study done on Cambodian and Vietnamese immigrants found out that about 94% had no clue of what hypertension is and about 85% did were not aware of heart disease preventive measures. Majority of patient of Vietnamese descent are conscious of the connection between obesity and hypertension but lack the knowledge that high blood pressure could lead to heart attack, stroke and kidney and eye disorders. These amongst other reasons call for enlighten of Vietnamese American patients on the relationship between high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases. This is guide by the fact that their foods have a high proportion of sodium-incorporated sauces5. Table: 1 Age-Adjusted Prevalence of Hypertension per 100,000(36) AAPI Women All Women AAPI Men All Men Hypertension 8.4 11.0 9.7 10.3 Source: Harmony in health care: A Resource Guide for Culturally Appropriate Care Of Vietnamese Americans. Hypertension danger and exercise Guided by a study conducted in Houston Texas, Vietnamese Americans who spoke Vietnamese was more probable to eat fruits and vegetables, smoke more and not indulge in exercise than those who spoke English. Exercise is considered by Vietnamese Americans as an image linked issue rather than health; people will therefore not exercise when healthy. To them exercise is perceived more as a means of restoring good health rather than preventing disease. Diagnosis of a Vietnamese American with heart disease calls for several actions to control the problem6. The actions embraced by the Vietnamese include, but not limited to stress management, exercise, eating well and regularly, boxing, staying happy and calm and anger management. Hypertension: Cholesterol and blood cholesterol testing Lack of know how on what causes an individual be vulnerable to developing high blood cholesterol among Vietnamese and the thought that high fat content diet is the leading cause is are some of the reasons for increasing incidences of hypertension cases. On gender basis, women have a higher probability of having their cholesterol checked and be made aware of their level compared to their male counterparts. It has been noted that most Vietnamese Americans are not aware of the importance of normal check-ups and in particular screening tests7. This has been contributed by the believe people who go for regular check ups have numerous problems and therefore they will only opt for medical check-up when ill. The national cholesterol education program expert panel recommends regular cholesterol check-up for all persons aged 20 years and above at least once in every five years. The study showed no significant difference between cholesterol amounts in US born and non-born Asians. Barriers to health care in Vietnamese American population Lack of insurance or medical coverage among Vietnamese Americans has contributed to disparities in gaining access prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases and eventual outcome and death rates. Even to those who visit doctors, preventive care services such as cholesterol, blood pressure tests and pap smears are never done on them. The outstanding reasons for lack of health care access are the absence of linguistically and ethnically experienced health services. Some studies that have been conducted have demonstrated the presence of cultural, racial and linguistic as barriers contributing to the disparities experienced by the Vietnamese American population8. Restricted English expertise and little\ health literacy barriers: because of the fact that most Vietnamese Americans have limited English speaking expertise hampers their access to health information and services. This makes it difficult to communicate effectively with health care professional and emergency personnel let alone comprehending and using medications offered by international organizations such as Medicaid and Medicare. Cultural barrier: belief related to health and misconceptions of diseases and illnesses may block early warning symptoms and holdup access to medical intervention. For instance, shyness and embarrassment among women during physical examination or going for medical check-ups have resulted in delay in gaining access to health care services. Cultural beliefs such as those concerning being touched by strangers and male physicians; fear of huge medical facilities (such as those used in diagnosis of mammography) and belief that cancer has no cure have also contributed immensely toward delays in gaining access to health care and disease management. Other belief on buying medication without getting any assistance from health professionals; this might result into high chances of developing complications9 Conclusion Studies conducted clearly show that hypertension prevalence among the Vietnamese Americans is on the rise because of adoption of western life styles ranging from feeding habits to. Due to this reason and many others, effort should be directed towards developing and carrying out targeted drive to bring down the risk of hypertension occurrence and enhance access to health care among Vietnamese American population. This and much more related approaches would ease health management and disease avoidance relating to chronic illnesses like hypertension and heart attack thus resulting into better general health care. References Amery, A. K. (1982). Hypertensive cardiovascular disease: pathophysiology and treatment. The Hague: M. Nijhoff ;. Duong Diep A., Bohannon Alice S., and Ross Candice M. (2001). A Descriptive Study of Hypertension in Vietnamese Americans. Journal of Community Health Nursing, Vol 18(1)1-11. MacGregor, G., & Kaplan, N. M. (2006). Hypertension (3rd ed.). Abingdon, UK: Health Press. Moon S. Chen, Jr (1993). Cardiovascular Health among Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders: An Examination of Health Status and Intervention Approaches. American Journal of Health Promotion: January/February 1993, Vol. 7, (3), 199-207. Nguyen Tung T. et al,. (2009). Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Knowledge of Symptoms among Vietnamese Americans. Journal of General Internal Medicine, Vol.24 (2), 238-243. Pham Trang M., Rosenthal Michael P., and Diamond James J., (1999). Hypertension, Cardiovascular Disease, and Health Care Dilemmas in the Philadelphia Vietnamese Community Vol.31 (9), 647-650. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Hypertension among Vietnamese Americans Research Paper - 1”, n.d.)
Hypertension among Vietnamese Americans Research Paper - 1. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/health-sciences-medicine/1595767-hypertension-among-vietnamese-americans
(Hypertension Among Vietnamese Americans Research Paper - 1)
Hypertension Among Vietnamese Americans Research Paper - 1. https://studentshare.org/health-sciences-medicine/1595767-hypertension-among-vietnamese-americans.
“Hypertension Among Vietnamese Americans Research Paper - 1”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/health-sciences-medicine/1595767-hypertension-among-vietnamese-americans.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Hypertension among Vietnamese Americans

Hypertension

For instance, in 2008, 61,005 americans died from the disease.... According to the High Blood Pressure 2012 Statistical Fact Sheet, high blood pressure is the principal cause of death among the American populace.... hypertension Institution's name: Date: Abstract hypertension is also referred to as high blood pressure.... hellip; hypertension can be normalized through various ways.... For instance, having a healthy lifestyle can greatly help mitigate the advent of hypertension....
4 Pages (1000 words) Research Paper

Pathophysiology of Hypertension

Primary hypertension is predominant among the people (about 95%) and secondary hypertension is found only in 5% of the hypertensive patients.... hypertension is one of the most common risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.... This hypertension is classified as unidentifiable primary hypertension and identifiable secondary hypertension.... hellip; Secondary hypertension is caused by the presence of another disease condition and this account about 5 to 10% of the total patients....
8 Pages (2000 words) Assignment

Hypertension in the African American Culture

In the background of this study by Fongwa, et al is the fact that hypertension among African American women is of epidemic proportions and non-adherence to treatment may lead to uncontrolled blood pressure in this population.... Therefore, the introductory section of the article "Adherence treatment factors in hypertensive African American women" has been significant in establishing that hypertension among African American women is of epidemic proportions and it is on the basis of the research findings of the previous studies....
4 Pages (1000 words) Book Report/Review

The Immigration Experience of Vietnamese Americans

hellip; However there still can be found discrimination amongst the native Americans and the vietnamese americans.... This article would further discuss the vietnamese americans in detail.... The people who belong to Vietnam are now looked with more respect and esteem by the native americans.... This culture had rules which were not seen by the americans previously.... According to the books of history vietnamese people hold a great tale of getting immigrated to America in the hard times....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Hypertension in Vietnamese Americans

There is a great need for health education on alcohol use, diet, smoking and cardiovascular disease among vietnamese americans.... A paper "Hypertension in vietnamese americans" reports that cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causal factors of death in the US and hypertension is the primary indicator of this.... ) note that “vietnamese americans may be at a particularly high risk for HTN due to the high incidence of smoking and the cultural preference for high sodium diets in this population”....
3 Pages (750 words) Research Paper

Analysis of Hypertension Cases

When pumping, the pressure is called systolic… hypertension is a huge problem in the USA the world general.... The number of recorded deaths that were related to hypertension in 2011 in the USA was 27,853 (Deaths: Final Data for 2011, 2011). hypertension cases are grouped into two: primary hypertension and secondary Secondary hypertension is caused due to other medical conditions.... Primary hypertension is caused due to the risk factors that are associated with it....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Rebellion, The Vietnamese World

The Rebel managed to meet expenses by Hollywood criteria, which made it impressive for a vietnamese origin.... By the time of release, The Rebel recorded the most costly vietnamese production in history because of a budget ranging between 1.... The Rebel is probably the first vietnamese film involving martial arts of its nature....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Business Plan for RedHeart Cafe

study indicates that americans love to eat out especially those who live in a city due to the fast-paced lifestyle.... This fact alone leads to higher risk for a cardiovascular disease which kills millions of americans every year.... A fast-paced lifestyle, a stressful workplace, and unhealthy eating habits all contribute to a higher risk of obesity, hypertension and other bodily disorders....
7 Pages (1750 words) Term Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us