Each year, people around the world lose their lives due to treatable diseases, since their socioeconomic status gets in the way of sufficient treatment. These factors include race, sex, access to food and clean water, education levels, income levels and many more. These factors should not be obstacles to achieving adequate health standards, but unfortunately, they have a significant impact on human health.
Recent statistics from various research support the danger of the health inequities around the world. For instance, in the U.S., black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related issues compared to white women, whereas most maternal deaths are preventable. This is due to the neglect in healthcare that black people face as a result of their skin color.
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Similar issues occur in the UK, where black men are claimed to be put in disproportionate danger of dying from prostate cancer due to the outdated NHS guidelines and health inequities resulting from that. In the UK, 295 in every 100,000 white men, and 440 in every 100,000 black men between the ages of 65-84 get diagnosed with stage 3 or 4 prostate cancer each year. Black men get their diagnosis visibly later and are 14% less likely to receive life-saving treatment. Research suggests that one in four black men will get prostate cancer - and have twice the risk of dying from the disease than other men. These statistics show how vitally dangerous and serious health inequities due to skin color can be.
Economic income also has a direct effect on one’s health. Chronic diseases, which account for 3 in 4 deaths globally, are the biggest factor that causes death in today’s world. Chronic diseases are non-infectious diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart diseases and require extensive and comprehensive treatment to achieve full recovery. Even minimal neglect in healthcare may result in irreversible consequences on people’s health, and may eventually cause death. Unfortunately, this much of a detailed and vital treatment comes with a high cost. Because of this reason, in poor countries, individuals may struggle to afford the treatment if sufficient financial help is not offered, and lose their lives due to a disease that is otherwise preventable.
Health inequities show up as a result of different causes worldwide, also in Türkiye. According to TÜİK, the doctor to people ratio in cities such as Urfa, Bingöl, Bitlis etc. where the majority of people are Kurdish, is 1 doctor per 1000 people. This is considered very low and shows how certain groups of people are neglected in terms of healthcare due to the region that they live in. Dr. Veysi Ülgen, the president of the Diyarbakır Medical Chamber, evaluated the data for the daily BirGün. According to him, several factors create and sustain the shortage of doctors in Turkey's east. He explained that there are a lot of doctors who do not want to work in this place, most of whom are already preparing to leave for abroad due to very difficult working conditions. “When doctors do not feel safe, they seek to practice elsewhere. The working environment for doctors needs improvement," he noted.
It is supported by various research that the Kurdish population in Türkiye is disadvantaged in every aspect of healthcare. Another example of this could be mortality rates. While the national average in 2019 was 8.3 per thousand live births, the 16 Kurdish-majority provinces reported a higher rate of 11.4 per thousand.
The eastern region of Türkiye, most places being highly remote and mountainous, is also hard to access and therefore hard to provide sufficient medical resources. People in this region have low income levels, making it highly difficult for them to reach high-quality healthcare.
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Even though medical technology and treatment techniques keep improving, there are so many people that are unable to reach these advances and therefore die due to preventable diseases that remain untreated. Health inequity is one of the biggest issues of today’s world and should be brought more attention to fight worldwide in order to solve this issue.
Edited by: Oya Yamaç, Yağmur Ece Nisanoğlu