C228 Community Health Nursing Task 1

C228 community Health Nursing Task 1

Western Governors University

Identification of Community        

Contra Costa County nestled in San Francisco East Bay of Northern California, north of Oakland and southwest of Sacramento. The county was one of the original 27 counties established in California in 1850. It is comprised of 19 cities and has a total area of 806 square miles (Community Health Indicator for Contra Costa County, 2010). Mount Diablo is the most notable landmark in the county. It is also the centerpiece of Mt. Diablo State Park, which is a popular recreation area residents and visitors can enjoy.

Population Economic Status Assessment

        The Population Economic Status Assessment of the county was utilized to obtain the following data. According to the City-data, Contra Costa County’s population in 2007 was 250,207. There are approximately 3,674 people per square mile.48.4% of the population is males and 51.6% are females. The median age is 35 years old which is older than the California median 33.3 years old. Contra Costa County has a diverse population, with 32% of white, 23.6% Hispanic, 23% African American, 16.5% Asian alone, 3.7% Tow or more races and rest is other races. For community members that are 15 years old and older,30.8% have never been married, 52% are currently married, 2.6% are separated, 6.7% are widowed and 10.6% are divorced (City-Data website, 2015). The estimated median household income in 2013was $62,143. Estimated per capita income in 2013 was $27,821.High school graduates or those with higher education make up 79.5% of the population and those with bachelor degrees make up 27%. Unemployment in Contra Costa County is 6% in June 2014. There were 12.4% of residents with income below the poverty level and 5.8% of residents with income below 50% of poverty level in 2009 (City-data website, 2015).21.6% of Contra Costa’s population lived below 200% of the federal poverty level in 2008. 13.5% (123,000) of Contra Costa residents younger than 65 years were uninsured in 2007 (Community Health Indicator for Contra Costa County, 2010).

Culture assessment

Culture assessment tool is used to analyze Contra Costa County, which is a very diverse community.  Every category of white, Hispanic, African American and Asian takes more than 15% of the total population. It is important to understand beliefs, needs of different culture group and how they may influence on health care. Some Vietnamese feel disrespectful to ask doctors a question. It is also popular among Asian people that not complaining of pain or discomfort shows strong in character. Americans often seek medical advice soon after noticing any physical changes in their bodies, so they experience very little or no pain with the condition. On the other hand, Indians experience high levels of pain and only seek help when pain had become intolerable, due to their belief that pain is a part of a normal life. In Japanese culture, eye contact is confrontational and adversarial. Health status is also different between cultural groups. Certain conditions appear to be more prevalent in certain cultural groups. Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups has higher incidence of hypertension than white. Chinese and Indian populations has lower incidence than white population(Dyson &Smaje, 2001). Inherited blood diseases such as sickle cell disorders tend to affectmainly, but not exclusively, people from Africa, the Caribbean, India,Mediterranean origin and Middle East (Streetly, 2005).African American adults are nearly 1.5 times as likely to be obese compared with White adults. Approximately 47.8 percent of African Americans are obese (including 37.1 percent of men and 56.6 percent of women) compared with 32.6 percent of Whites (including 32.4 percent of men and 32.8 percent of women).More than 75 percent of African Americans are overweight or obese (including 69 percent of men and 82.0 percent of women) compared with 67.2 percent of Whites (including 71.4 percent of men and 63.2 percent of women).