Eric Moreno is a Content Curator with the Salud America! program at UT Health San Antonio. He specializes in covering the topics of health equity and family and social support. He holds a BA from the University of Texas at San Antonio and an MA from Gonzaga University.
Where you live has an incredible amount to do with how healthy and happy you are. Research shows Latinos and low-income families lack access to healthy food options, active spaces, and healthy school environments—which impact an area’s culture of health. So how healthy and happy are heavily Latino states? Gallup recently surveyed 177,000 Americans and ranked every state in terms of its citizens’ “personal contentment” or happiness. Rankings were based on financial stability, physical health, and community involvement. New Mexico, California, Texas, and Arizona—the four most heavily Latino U.S. states—ranked well, at No. 20, 13, 10, and 7, respectively, in terms of happiest, healthiest residents. Hawaii (9.9% Latino) ranked No. 1. Hawaii reported low obesity ...
An article published by the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine has outlined the overall impact that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has had on healthcare access for Latinos. In the U.S. Latinos have traditionally faced inequities and disparities in access to healthcare compared to Whites. With the passing of the ACA, Americans overall made historic gains in reducing the rates of the uninsured population. Latinos especially reached record lows in the number of uninsured individuals. According to the study, despite the historic gains, Latinos perform worse on most measures of access to and utilization of their health care than Whites. The reasons for these disparities are multifaceted and include citizenship status, language, and socioeconomic status. In order to ...
Latinos are the largest and fastest growing racial and ethnic group in the United States. Despite gains made with the passing of the Affordable Care Act, Latinos are also still the largest uninsured population in the country. One of the major ways that many Latinos have attained healthcare has been through Medicare. Currently, Medicare provides health coverage for most Americans when they reach age 65 or have been receiving Social Security disability benefits for 24 months. The service covers a portion of the health care costs of over 55 million Americans, including approximately 4.1 million Latinos. Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an updated guide that outlines what Medicare doesn’t cover. In order to reduce health disparities, ...
Lack of support can hinder Latino health. Recently, the St. Paul Foundation – a nonprofit community foundation based in St. Paul, MN (9.53% Latino population) – conducted a survey of more than 1,500 area residents to learn about their transportation, health care, and housing statuses. According to the Pioneer Press, the Foundation received a total of 400 completed surveys from respondents in Dakota County, 480 from Washington County and 430 from St. Paul, as well as another 230 from Ramsey County. Among the findings, the area has seen a large influx of Latinos since the year 2000. In Dakota County (6.44% Latino population), as an example, the Latino population has tripled in that time frame. In terms of transportation and transportation equity, the surveys determined ...
For many Latinos, discussing mental health issues still retains a strong and often negative stigma. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) emphasizes that mental illness is no different for Latinos than for any other racial or ethnic group. Common mental health disorders among Latinos are generalized anxiety disorder, major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcoholism. For many Latinos, a lack of access to mental health care resources means conditions go either untreated or undiagnosed. Language barriers also prevent many from expressing their symptoms and/or concerns to their doctors. In the city of Fresno, Calif., one group is looking to help remove some of these barriers. The Consejo Project, part of the Department of Social Work Education at ...
Latinos have been making great strides in education in recent years. The high school dropout rate is the lowest in history and more and more are attending two- and four-year colleges and universities. As the Latino population continues to grow, it can be expected that these trends will continue to grow more positively. At Eastern Shore Community College in Melfa, VA (2.3% Latino population), those effects have already been felt. Despite lagging overall attendance figures for the institution, Latino numbers have grown to historic numbers. The community college is now moving toward becoming a minority-serving institution, which is a designation awarded to colleges and universities in which white students make up less than 50% of the total enrollment. In order to reduce health ...
Asthma is a serious lung disease that disproportionately affects Latinos – especially children. Numerous factors, including housing situations, economic status, and access to healthcare, weigh heavily on many Latinos with asthma. One report found that Latino kids are 40% more likely to die from an asthma attack than their white peers! Nearly 20% of all Latino kids under the age of 18 also suffer from asthma. While asthma never really goes away, it can be managed. One way is to watch what you eat. Food has an influence on asthma symptoms and some foods can make asthma worse. While not everyone reacts the same way, here are some common foods to avoid if you or someone in your family has asthma. Dried Fruit Many kinds of dried fruits include preservatives that are ...
Determining the best way to reach Latinos has always been one of the biggest questions that health care workers always ask. Language barriers, trust issues, and cultural differences are just some of the barriers that often create inequities for many Latinos. At Mercer University in Macon, GA (3.14% Latino population), students launched a community health fair aimed at reaching Latinos in an effort to alleviate some of the lingering health concerns of the community. “Since the Hispanic population is growing a lot, we need more representation, more people that can help because that affects the whole community,” said Dr. Jose Pino, a professor of foreign languages and literature at Mercer University in an interview with WMAZ. “In some institutions they don't have bilingual ...
A new study reported by USA Today has confirmed some really bad news. Over the past four decades, colon and rectal cancers have increased dramatically and steadily, especially in young and middle-age adults. This could be even worse news for Latinos. According to statistics from the American Cancer Society, colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among Latino men and the third leading cause of cancer deaths among Latina women. Scientists have not pinpointed an exact cause, but they have theorized that the rising obesity rats and inactivity and poor diets have played a factor in this news. “Colorectal cancer had been thought a success story” because overall rates have fallen as screening has increased among older adults, said lead researcher Rebecca Siegel ...
