Single Fathers and Health Disparities: Will Nurses Address Inequities?

• Main Authors: Sargsyan, Alex, Hemphill, Jean Croce, Ridner, Lee
• Published: Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2019
• Subjects: single fathers; health disparities; inequities; College of Nursing; Nursing
• Online Access: https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/7559; https://www.myamericannurse.com/single-fathers-and-health-disparities-will-nurses-address-inequities/

Single parents face many challenges when accessing healthcare for their children and themselves, and have health issues that may go unrecognized, particularly for single fathers. The number of single father households has increased dramatically over the past few decades. There were fewer than 300,000 single father households in 1960, but in 2011 that number increased to more than 2.6 million—a 8.6-fold increase from baseline. Despite this jump in numbers, the literature addressing health-related issues of single fathers is rather scant. In this blog, we disseminate the limited number of studies on the subject and make recommendations for nurses to address the health disparities for this unique segment of population.