Bronx Community | Research Report

Running head: COMMUNITY HEALTH 1
Community Health
Name of Author
Institution of Affiliation
Date of Submission

COMMUNITY HEALTH 2
Community Health
Introduction
The population that the paper is referring to leaves in Bronx County in New York. The
County was the last to be incorporated in New York. According to the survey (Rubin, Davis &
McKee, 2013), Bronx County is the third most densely populated county in the United States.
About a quarter of its area is open space with Bronz zoo, Pelham Bay Park and Cortlandt Park
(Kristal et al., 2015). The population that is being assessed within Bronx County in New York is
individuals within the adolescent stage. The focus group is within the age of 15 years to 19 years.
Available boundaries within Bronx community
Various strange boundaries exist within Bronx County. One of these boundaries is the
Hudson River located on the west of the Bronx. It separates the Bronx from Alpine, New Jersey,
and Bergen County. The other boundary is the Harlem River which separates the County from
the island of Manhattan which is adjacent to the Bronx (Kaplan et al., 2013). Also, the East River
separates the Bronx from Queens to the southeast and the Long Island Sound separates it from
Nassau.
Races available within the community
The Bronx is considered to be diverse when it comes to races. There are different
varieties of races living in the Bronx most being Hispanic. According to the data collected in
2014-2016, the percent of Hispanic people living in Bronx County is 56 percent, while 44
percent are Non-Hispanic. The non-Hispanic individuals consist of 9.4 percent whites, 30.1
percent blacks and 4.1 percent Asian and Pacific Islander people (Findley, et al., 2014). The
Bronx’s population is ethnically and racially diverse with different people from different places

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living together. In approximation, 37 percent of Bronx are Black American which is a much
larger percentage when compared to other counties in New York. The black Americans
population includes the US-born and immigrants from Africa and Caribbean countries. Over half
of the populations are identified as Hispanic who historically was from Puerto Rico. Currently,
there are more immigrants from Central America and the Dominican Republic. In
approximation, four percent of individuals living in the Bronx is Asian from different parts of
Pakistani and Bangladeshi (Patel, Rajpathak & Karasz, 2012).
According to the available data from (Checkoway et al., 2012), about 19 percent of
individuals living in the Bronx are not US citizens. It is estimated that about 468,927 people who
represent one-third of people living in the Bronx were born outside of the US (Ingram, 2014).
The high percentage of these people can be found on the western edges of Crotona
Tremont and in Fordham Park. Most of these residents speak less English. Access to services
such as health and education are limited in these places as most fear deportation. According to
(Fabricant, 2010), most of the individuals who are undocumented always avoid providing their
information regarding their citizenship and identity as this might make them be deported to their
home countries. Besides, most of these foreigners speak less English thus may experience
cultural barriers to health care access. Other residents complain about the quality of language
services being provided thus the avoidance of health care services (Ingram, 2014).
In estimation, about half of Bronx residents speak other languages other than English
(Smouha, 2012). About 46 percent are thought to speak Spanish, 3 percent African language and
about 1 percent speaks in French including Indo-European and Italian languages as shown in the
table below.

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Table: Limited English Proficiency by insurance status
Table: Languages spoken at home among populations with limited English Proficiency with no
Medical Cover

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Characteristics and resources available for this community
According to (Freudenberg et al., 2010), there are low poverty levels and low levels of
education in Bronx. In approximately, there are about 541 schools in this community. Out of
541, public elementary schools are 158, 69 public middle schools and 109 public high schools.
Also, there are 44 public charter schools, 101 private schools and 20 junior and senior public
schools. Particularly, the education levels in Bronx is reported to be poor with a high dropout
rate which negatively affects the future opportunities for youths as well as their strengths within
this particular community.
It is estimated that seven percent of adults living in this local community has a college
degree which means that 93 percent do not have a college degree. Referring to this case, the
young people end up growing in this area interacting with adults who have no college degree and
this reverberates via the health impact as well. The only four public collages that exist in Bronx
include Bronx community college, Maritime College, Herbert Lehman College, and Hostos
Community college.
According to (Garrido et al., 2012), the Bronx community has a high population of about
1.4 million people. It is estimated that two-thirds of these people (age 18-64) are working
whereas over one quarter (0-17 years) are children and about 10 % are older people with over 65
years. When compared to other New York populations, the population’s age of Bronx is slightly
younger with five percent more children and slightly lowers working and older individuals.
In Bronx community, about 220,000 individuals are uninsured which makes up ten
percent of all uninsured people in the State of New York. Adults who are between the ages of 18
- 65 account for the largest percentage of uninsured individuals in Bronx. Within this county, the

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highest number of uninsured individuals is clustered in some parts of Hunts Point to Fordham
Park in the south. In reference to (Futterman et al., 2016), a significant percentage of these who
are uninsured in this county may be undocumented suggesting that insurance coverage remains
an issue even for these eligible.
Given the difficulties of paying for basic needs including education, housing, and food,
self-purchased coverage is considered to be too expensive and the income restrictions for
Medicaid considered unrealistically low. According to (Ssewamala et al., 2012), poverty is the
main concern as many individuals living in this community find it hard as they are unemployed
or working in places that do not support health insurance. So many decide it’s better to lack
health insurance and have food in their stomach. Of these with no health coverage, about 60
percent are foreign-born when compared with 28 percent for individuals with Medicaid and 30
percent foe these with other health coverage as shown in the table below.
Table: Nativity by insurance Status
According to the 2008-2012 American Community Survey, 60 percent of the total
number of 220,000 uninsured Bronx population were foreign-born where the largest portion
were from Latin American nations followed by those from non-Hispanic Caribbean nations,