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.
According to a recently published report from The Century Foundation, poverty concentration has resurfaced in the United States and Latinos have become disproportionately affected. Small urban cities, such as Syracuse, New York, have seen that 62% of their Latino population now lives in poverty. The report found that cities such as Syracuse have grown 12.6% since 2000, while large metropolitan areas have grown by less than 2%. The report found that there is a widespread growth of poverty concentration nationwide. This affects a wide swath of societal ills such as urban violence, police-community tension, and racism. One of the more intriguing findings of the report was that the Great Recession was not directly responsible for this increase in poverty numbers, except for Latinos. ...
Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) is the second-largest community college in the nation. Currently, 52% of its students are from minority racial or ethnic groups including Latinos. A large part of this is due to the school’s longstanding “Pathways to the Baccalaureate” program. The program is a consortium of 10 area educational institutions including NOVA, area public schools, and George Mason University and provides outreach to high school students that are more likely to face obstacles entering college. “The program is designed to breach the barriers of higher education,” said Everett Eberhardt, director of equity, diversity, and ADA/504 compliance at NOVA. “The purpose is to increase access to education for at-risk students.” Founded in 2005, the ...
According to the National Alliance for Hispanic Health and the American Cancer Society (ACS), the Hispanic cancer rate is overall lower cancer rates than in non-Hispanics. However, Hispanics have higher instances of cancers associated with infectious agents, such as stomach, liver, and cervical cancer. “Hispanics live longer than non-Hispanic whites and overall have a lower incidence rate of cancer than non-Hispanic whites,” said Dr. Jane Delgado, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health. “These data need to be looked at as part of the larger picture of the health of Hispanics. To give dire warnings without offering resources for care and treatment is not only irresponsible but it is also unethical.” The research also found that early and comprehensive ...
Family Futures, a program based in Western Michigan aimed at providing infants with a healthy start in life, was recently awarded over $4 million to expand its outreach to Latino families in the area. The program will receive funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to improve maternal health and child health among Latinos in Kent County, Michigan. Family Futures was created to improve the health of mothers and children and help in eliminating racial and ethnic disparities. The group provides outreach, case management, education, mental health services and fatherhood programs. “Strong Beginnings [and Family Futures] will help families navigate community services, addressing social determinants that might be barriers, and provide learning opportunities for families,” said ...
A new research study by UT Southwestern Medical Center has determined that one in five Latino parents aren’t told that they’re children are obese by the family pediatrician. The research noticed that, if language barriers exist between the doctor and patient, the topic of weight is not discussed.
The UT Southwestern study made three crucial findings: language barriers impact that a child is overweight; many overweight Latino children and their parents aren’t told directly that the child is overweight; few Latino children and their parents receive weight-management advice. “During primary care visits with overweight children in which there is a language barrier, it is incredibly important to provide a trained medical interpreter or bilingual provider, and use a growth chart to ...
According to a new report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Latino elders in California are more likely than other populations to be among the “hidden poor.” Single Latino elders and elders caring for adult children experience economic insecurity at higher levels, even if they aren’t near the federal poverty line. The study describes the “hidden poor” as those who live in the gap between the federal poverty level and the Elder Index’s poverty measure. “Many of our older adults are forced to choose between eating, taking their medications or paying rent,” said Imelda Padilla-Frausto, a UCLA graduate student researcher and lead author the study. The national federal poverty level estimates that a single, elderly adult should be able to live on an ...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently unveiled an action plan to address health equity and reduce health disparities in Medicare within four years. The CMS Equity Plan for Improving Quality in Medicare has six steps: Expand the Collection, Reporting, and Analysis of Standardized Data
Evaluate Disparities Impacts and Integrate Equity Solutions Across CMS Programs
Develop and Disseminate Promising Approaches to Reduce Health Disparities
Increase the Ability of the Health Care Workforce to Meet the Needs of Vulnerable Populations
Improve Communication and Language Access for Individuals with Limited English Proficiency and Persons with Disabilities
Increase Physical Accessibility of Health Care Facilities “Making sure care is equitable is ...
People in the rapidly growing, increasingly urban, racially and ethnically diverse American South face dire poverty and health equity issues. In fact, compared to those in other regions, Southerners are more likely to be uninsured, less likely to have access to needed health services, and more likely to experience a number of chronic health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. That’s why health care access and coverage is so vital. A new report, developed by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and the Satcher Health Leadership Institute, indicates that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has created new opportunities to advance health equity in the South, as new coverage options are available, especially in states involved in the ...
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was in part established to increase healthcare coverage among racial/ethnic minorities to improve their access and utilization of care. But many factors still prevent individuals from obtaining care. Latino and Black adults who are privately insured don’t fare as well as White adults on several healthcare utilization and access categories and have less confidence in their ability to afford medical costs, according to a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Among the uninsured, there are fewer differences between Latino and Black adults and White adults and Medicaid enrollees; where there were differences, Latinos and Black adults fared better than White adults in most cases. Latinos also were less likely than Whites to delay or forgo ...
