The document discusses leading causes of death among American Indian/Alaska Native populations in the US. It finds that the top 10 causes of death are heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, diabetes, chronic liver disease, chronic lower respiratory disease, suicide, stroke, homicide, and influenza/pneumonia. It also discusses cultural competency in healthcare and how addressing issues like low literacy and language barriers can help improve health outcomes for minority populations.

1. Running Head: LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH 1
LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH 2
Leading Causes of Death
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The minority/racial group from the leading causes of death by
race in the USA are the American Indians/ Alaska natives. The
population of these races is about 2.9 percent of the US
population. Those who are under the age of 18 and below are
about 32 percent compared to the total population which has 24
percent that are below 18 years of age. The median age of the
two is about 26 in contrast with the entire nation which is 37
(Heron, 2016). The states with the highest population of these
tribes are Alaska with 19.5 %, New Mexico with 10.7% and
Oklahoma State with 12.9%. In terms of education, the numbers
of students who have joined school have doubled in the past 3
decades. 5 percent of the American Indians and the Alaska
natives have graduated and have professional degrees (Murphy,
2013). Out of 19 percent of the US population, only 9 percent

2. have received bachelor’s degree. Business wise, the two races
have increased their capability to do business by a 17.9 percent.
They made around $34.5 in the year 2002, which was an
increase in a percentage of 28.3 percent in the same year. This
meant that their housing and infrastructure developed with an
increase of 39 percent between 1997 and 2001. The Indian,
states tribes, countries and the bureau of Indian affairs own
around 104,000 miles of public roads. The number of motor
vehicle crashes increased compared to that of the nation which
decreased by 2.2 percent. There are 199 reservations that
contain timberland while woodland has a reservation of 185
(Kochanek, 2011).
The top ten leading causes of death in the two races include;
1. Heart disease which is 18.9%
2. Cancer which takes around 18.6%
3. Unintentional injuries 13.5%
4. Diabetes 5.1%
5. Chronic liver disease 5.0%
6. Chronic lower respiratory disease 4.1%
7. Suicide 4.0%
8. Stroke 3.0%
9. Homicide 2.4%
10. Influenza and pneumonia 2.0%
Cultural competency is basically a set of policies, behaviors,
and attitudes that allows cross- cultural groups to work well in
an effective way (Murphy, 2013). These includes the languages,
values, human behaviors, believes in terms of religious
backgrounds, and ethic perceptions. Cultural competency is
important because it improves and makes it possible for people
from all tribe to be able to access health care. It will be able to
easily eliminate disparities that are involved with health and
race (Kochanek, 2011).
With cultural competency, language barrier will not become a
problem for people from different tribes that do not speak the
same language to access health care (Heron, 2016). It is said
that Latinos are more likely to be affected when to get help in

3. influenza vaccination because of the language barrier (Murphy,
2013). Non English speaking tribes find it hard to interpret
medical advice from English speaking doctors. It also leads to
poor comprehension and lower quality of health care. This
affects a lot the non-English speaking tribes in the US who are
around 37 million adults. It is good to clearly interpret well to
patients to help them in understand what disease they are
suffering from and how to avoid it.
Addressing low literacy is also a way to improve or addressing
the health problems in specific populations (Kochanek, 2011).
The elderly are the most affected when it comes to this factor.
Patients who suffer from chronic disease will have to make
complex decisions about how to manage their conditions. The
most affected tribes are tribes that have are minority in terms of
race and ethnic background. This is because they lack good
education and opportunities leading to cultural and language
barrier. It’s easier for people with low literacy to not
understand the instructions and make good decisions of their
health. Cultural competency will address this issue and people
will have knowledge and gain opportunities for going to school.
This will reduce the level of literacy among specific populations
(Kochanek, 2011).
Cultural competency will help reduce the difference that is
found when it comes to different race and ethnicity accessing
health care. Having regular checkups is very important to
ensure that you know the status of your health (Murphy, 2013).
A research showed that a higher number of nonwhites in the US
do not regularly visit the doctors and neither do they have
insurance cover. It’s showed that Latinos were the highest
number of people who never had interest in ensuring they had
checkups (Kochanek, 2011).
Cultural competency leads to patient satisfaction. Patients who
are suffering from chronic diseases need more of health care
and interaction. Therefore it’s very important to ensure that
they continue the interaction with the doctors (Kochanek,
2011). African Americans are reported to have poor treatment

4. by the doctors while they visit health cares. It is said that they
are rudely talked to, ignored and talked down. This meant that
cultural competency was not practiced and hence they were seen
not fit to be treated with a same manner as the whites. A
statistic showed that, 1 percent of the whites thought all other
races would have been treated well if they were whites. While
15 percent of the African American thought they would have
been treated well if they were whites (Murphy, 2013).
This means that when diversity increases, challenges of health
care will decrease an opportunities will increase. Cultural
competence will reduce deaths that are related to bad health
care (Heron, 2016). This will improve the relation and reception
of people in health cares and also the mentality that is negative
when it comes to treating patients.
The best reasons to target specific populations with health
information that they relate to is because they have knowledge
about it. Having an education background can help a lot in
understanding on how to close the gap for ethnic minority. This
will improve on how well give health care and the resources to
provide healthcare (Kochanek, 2011). The second reason is to
understand on how to allocate resources. Allocation resources
will help the delivery of health care to the patients. According
to the 2000 act that was to eliminate unlawful discrimination
laid a policy that promoted racial equality. This meant that the
allocation was to be done in an equal manner (Heron, 2016).
References
Heron, M. (2016). Deaths: Leading Causes for 2013. National
vital statistics reports: from the Centers for Disease Control and

5. Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital
Statistics System, 65(2), 1-14.
Kochanek, K. D., Xu, J., Murphy, S. L., Miniño, A. M., &
Kung, H. C. (2011). Deaths: final data for 2009. National vital
statistics reports: from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital
Statistics System, 60(3), 1-116.
Murphy, S. L., Xu, J., & Kochanek, K. D. (2013). Deaths: final
data for 2010. National vital statistics reports: from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health
Statistics, National Vital Statistics System, 61(4), 1-117.
Assignment Grading Rubric
Course: HS315 Unit: 7
Copyright Kaplan University
Instructions
Using systems thinking to address a health-based social issue,
create a program that utilizes an organization
or school to generate positive social change.
Review Case Studies 8 and 10 from your textbook prior to
completing this Assignment, and then respond to
the following questions.
1. What health-based social or behavioral problem are you
addressing? Give a brief overview.

6. 2. What organizations or schools will need to collaborate to
address the problem?
3. Who are the stakeholders? Why is this problem important to
them?
4. How will they work together to bring solutions?
5. What will the program look like?
6. What other community support will be needed for the
program to be successful?
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Unit 7 Assignment Grading Rubric = 80 points
Assignment Grading Rubric
Course: HS315 Unit: 7
Copyright Kaplan University
Assignment Requirements Points
possible
Points
earned by
student
Addresses an appropriate health-
based social or behavioral issue

8. 0–10
Answers each of the questions in
the worksheet substantively and
succinctly
0–60
Paper meets the minimum word
count requirement
0–10
Total (Sum of all points) 0–80
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