Health Disparities

Dear Community, 

Welcome to Habesha Health!  Our mission is to “address health disparities one conversation at a time.”  We aim to bring you quality information across virtual formats for you to enjoy, learn, and grow in health.  To do this in a meaningful way we really want to figure out what matters to you and affects the health of habesha communities most.  In this first blog post we will focus on what lies at the heart of what we strive to do, empower you to live healthful lives and reduce the health disparities.

Although being in the United States comes with presumed access to medical care, technology, and a longer average life span, this access is not distributed equally.  There are differences in rates of disease and death based on various factors including race, ethnicity, immigration status, income, gender, and even where someone lives.  These differences are known as health disparities.  

Health disparities are driven by poverty, education status, poor neighborhood conditions, language barriers, insurance status, and bias.  Immigrant communities can be even more vulnerable to health inequity and experience a decrease in health status the longer they are in the U.S.  This can be seen with chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. 

Now that we have talked about these differences in health, let’s talk about some of the things that contribute to good health.

• Attending to your emotional health

• Eating a well-balanced diet

• Engaging in regular physical activity

• Getting an adequate amount of sleep

• Maintaining a healthy body weight

• Meaningful connections with family, friends, and colleagues 

There are a number of approaches underway to reduce health disparities.  At Habesha Health we believe knowledge is power and have chosen to focus on developing quality health education for you. 

Habesha Health was motivated by accessibility and to educate our community by our content from the comfort of their own spaces. We will feature conversations with health professionals and experts on a number of health related topics.  What would you like to learn more about? What are the health issues that matter to you most?  You can answer these questions and more by completing our community health survey. There is limited data on what our community needs and we want to prioritize learning from our community. We are looking to our community to provide us with information to help us understand the needs in order for us to make educational content that is informed and shaped by our community. Please consider completing our survey to help us obtain more data.  It will just take a few minutes, and will help us improve the health of our communities.  

We appreciate you being here. We hope you can continue to stay connected with us! 

With Gratitude,

Habesha Health Team