Guess what? Unlike every OTHER area in our society where everyone of every racial and social economic group are treated with absolute equanimity — education, housing, health care and access to a fair system of justice… for SOME reason, people in the lower socioecomic groups tend to have more advanced Parkinson’s disease by the time they seek medical attention. That’s what this study says.
African American patients and those with lower socioeconomic status have more advanced disease and greater disability when they seek treatment from Parkinson’s disease specialists, according to a study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The researchers found that race, education and income were each significant and independent factors in determining a patient’s level of disability. The disparities in health care are associated with greater disease severity and earlier loss of independence. The study is published in the December 13, 2010, online edition of Archives of Neurology.
The cause of these racial and socioeconomic disparities is unclear, but possible explanations include problems with access to health care, reduced physician referral rate or patient reluctance to seek care from a movement disorders specialist. The study focused on a sample of more than 1,000 patients who were seen at the University of Maryland Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center for parkinsonism (slow movements, tremor and rigidity, difficulty initiating movement, and problems with gait and balance), mostly due to Parkinson’s disease, but also caused by other conditions, including stroke, head trauma and medication side effects.
Golly! Whoda thunk it! In this day and age where EVERYONE has equal access to health care, the wealthy and poor, the native-born and immigrant, how could this BE that folks in the lower socioeconomic strata wait until their disease is more advanced before they seek medical attention. Could it be that they have OTHER financial strains on their budgets? Like choosing between paying rent and buying food? Like between heating the house and leaving the electricity on?
“Through our evaluation over a five-year period, we found that African Americans and people with lower socioeconomic status had greater disease severity and disability than whites when they first came to our clinic. Very large differences in Parkinson’s disease symptom severity and functional status were seen between blacks and whites, between high and low income groups and between groups with greater and lesser educational attainment,” says Lisa Shulman, M.D., lead author and professor of neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
“In the future, we will need to see if greater understanding and correction of these disparities could improve outcomes for these patients,” adds Dr. Shulman, who is also co-director of the Maryland Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
The analysis revealed that African American patients were less likely to receive medications for their parkinsonian symptoms overall and less likely to receive newer medications, which are generally more expensive. But the researchers acknowledge that the relatively small number of African Americans in the study (66) may limit their ability to detect differences and that more study is needed.
More study. In other words, give us some more money so we can look at this further.
Look. Let me save you a couple million. As long as we maintain our current health care system where them what HAS GETS good health care and them what DON’T GOT, DON’T GET because they can’t afford it, these disparities will continue. Until this country adopts a single-payer system where EVERYONE has EQUAL ACCESS to treatment, the poor will continue to show up in emergency rooms with advanced disease while those of us who are more fortunate will have our regular 4-month appointments.
Point A: It SHAMES me that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, folks still have to make choices like the ones outlined above. It should shame ALL of us that people in the lower economic strata have to wait until a disease gets out of control before they seek medical attention while someone in the upper economic strata can dash off to the plastic surgeon because she noticed a lump of cellulite on her thigh! THIS IS THE SORT OF SHIT THAT SHOULD KEEP PEOPLE OF CONSCIENCE AWAKE AT NIGHT!!!
Point B: How much money was spent on this study? Did anyone really think that folks on the lower end of the economic scale were NOT going to be shown as waiting longer and delaying treatment? Did anyone really wonder WHY this would be the case? Apparently so, since “further study is needed.”
I swear… the answers seem so simple. Why is it that our leaders can’t figure this shit out? STOP WASTING MONEY ON “PROTECTING” US FROM “EVIL DOERS” who CAN’T EVEN LIGHT OFF A FREAKIN’ UNDERWEAR BOMB without screwing it up. STOP WASTING MONEY on Defense Systems that are UNNEEDED and UNNECESSARY because if ANYONE launches a nuke at us, we’ll launch one back, and then we ALL die ANYWAY!
Despite what Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck tell you, good health is NOT a “luxury.” It is a RIGHT, GUARANTEED us in the constitution. If you can AFFORD a Cadillac health insurance program — GROOVY! SPEND that money. If you AREN’T “Limbaugh Rich,” you should STILL have access to — at the very LEAST — the same quality health care necessary to keep you healthy, to PREVENT disease, to keep you alive. Situations like those recently spotlighted in Arizona are ABHORRENT, where the Governor declines to provide funding for liver and lung transplants because “it’s too costly.”
Is there anything more precious, more worth saving, more worth SPENDING MONEY on than LIFE?
USE some of this wasted money to do what the Constitution TELLS you to in the Preamble.
“PROVIDE FOR THE GENERAL WELFARE AND SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY TO OURSELVES AND OUR DESCENDANTS.”
Was that so hard?
Related articles
- Parkinson’s disparities (eurekalert.org)
- Parkinson’s: Later Diagnosis, Earlier Death (webmd.com)
Parky Bill's Parkinson's Disease Place 