Your readings to this point have documented significant differences—disparities—in health care provided for different racial and ethnic groups. This assignment provides an opportunity to reflect on, analyze, and write about group differences and health disparities.

Textbook authors Pérez and Luquis (p. 24) suggest, “[t]he reasons why we observe these disparities are not clearly understood and may be due to other factors as individual choices, differences in disease processes, or systemic barriers to care, or to any combination of these factors.”

Given that thinking, imagine that you have been asked by the regional director of health care services to select and evaluate ethnic group diseases and illnesses, disparities, behaviors, and probable causes.

Your research-based assignment is to identify and discuss health care disparities and wellness issues for a particular cultural group:

Select a population for which there is evidence of health care disparities. For this population:

Identify and describe two diseases with high incidence for the cultural (ethnic or racial) group.
Describe how the group is being affected.
What strategies are currently being employed or considered to increase wellness?
What additional considerations do you think might be useful?
Identify and discuss two specific disparities for the racial or ethnic group under consideration. Provide specific examples, and identify salient factors (such as socioeconomic status).
Identify and evaluate the group’s beliefs, values, and traditions related to quality health, disparities, and wellness.
Based on analysis of your cultural group, formulate assumptions (hypotheses) about locus of control (internal versus external) in a specific cultural group’s health, wellness, and disease. The research must focus on your selected cultural group.
Reflect on what you have found. Provide any insights, conclusions, or recommendations that you have arrived at from your research and analysis.
The following are assignment requirements for creating your research-based paper:

The paper must follow APA Citing and Referencing Guidelines, which appear in the Capella Undergraduate Online Writing Center. You will need a cover page, a table of contents, body of the paper, and a reference page.