In the small rural Central California town of Selma, a young Trinidad Solis watched long stretches of farmland float by through the car window. She listened to her parents in the front seat discuss their upcoming doctor’s appointment in Spanish. As Mexican immigrant farmworkers, Solis’ parents faced hardships accessing healthcare, including a language difference. Since her parents were monolingual Spanish-speakers, Solis often served as translator during her parents’ health appointments and helped them navigate the complex healthcare system. These childhood interactions spurred Solis’ desire to become a bilingual, background sensitive family physician who could provide healthcare, including infection prevention and control services, to vulnerable patients like her ...
When COVID-19 first struck America in 2020, Latinos were deeply affected. Not only did the pandemic create high rates of infection, hospitalization, and death among Latinos, it also worsened historical health differences, from access to healthcare and vaccinations to food insecurity, housing issues, and incorrect information. Today, as new variants continue to arise, an unresolved threat has emerged – Long COVID. Let’s analyze the lingering symptoms of Long COVID-19 and how it impacts Latinos today.
What is Long COVID?
The Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC, and other partners have worked to define “long COVID” or “post-COVID conditions.” “In April 2020, shortly after the beginning of the pandemic, anecdotal reports from patients started to ...
In a modest house in Los Angeles, California, a young girl buried her nose in a book. She focused on the book’s colorful graphics of doctors helping sick patients. Closing her eyes, she pictured herself in this role. Her mother’s words echoed in her mind, “Education is the key to opening doors in life.” The young girl wasn’t sure how, but she decided she was going to go to medical school, and she was going to become a doctor. Decades later, the young girl — now a grown woman – has a successful career in medicine. Dr. Marlene Martin is an associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and a hospitalist at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH). In these roles, Marlene combines her passion for clinical care ...
Did you know that your Zip code is more important than your genetic code in predicting how long you will live? That’s right – where you live can have a big impact on your health. In fact, our health is influenced by a variety of non-medical factors, such as the conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work, and age. These conditions are known as non-medical drivers of health. Addressing non-medical drivers of health is key to improving health for Latinos and all people. Numerous studies suggest that non-medical drivers of health accounts for between 30-55% of health outcomes and non-medical drivers of health influences individual health behaviors, which account for another 30% of health outcomes. Fortunately, healthcare systems are placing more emphasis on screening ...
Good news for Texans! A $3 million grant will help UT Health San Antonio train 275 new community health workers (CHWs) and support an additional 75 CHWs in maintaining state certification. The grant, issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services/Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), will train CHWs across 38 South Texas counties from Brownsville to Laredo, including the area’s rural communities. The grant is part of the federal government’s $226.5 million investment in the nation’s community and public health workforce, announced in September 2022.
The Importance of CHWs
Also known as promotoras de salud and patient navigators, CHWs connect patients to healthcare and facilitate communication between healthcare providers and patients, including ...
Childhood obesity is not only common for U.S. children, it’s a global epidemic. How can communities address this issue? A new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), Meeting the Moment: Learning From Leaders at the Forefront of Change, asked community leaders and researchers to share their experiences in hopes of better understanding and preventing childhood obesity. “It is you who get out there every day and innovate, renovate, and motivate the field to keep going, keep trying, keep striving,” said Jamie Bussel, senior program officer for the RWJF. Let’s explore four key areas community leaders can eliminate childhood obesity!
1. Improve Health Data
Accurate health data is important. For instance, we know Latino adults have higher obesity rates ...
Infection control keeps germs from spreading and making people sick. Infection control actions are based on recognizing the risks for germs to spread. But what is that risk? We know that germs are found in certain places, and need a way, or a pathway, to spread to other places and people. They also need the opportunity to spread. That’s where “risk” is, and where you can keep germs from spreading with infection control actions.
Identifying Risk
You, your patients, and the environment can be pathways for germs to spread. Understanding how germs spread and where they live and thrive can help you understand “Standard Precautions,” which are infection control actions you perform every day for all patients to keep germs from spreading. For example, an important part ...
In 2021, nearly 1 in 5 adults in the US with diabetes either skipped, delayed, or used less insulin than was needed to save money, according to a recent study in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Not taking the proper amount of insulin is dangerous, and can lead to diabetic ketoacidosis, which can be fatal. If six million Americans, including Latinos, need insulin to survive, why are they struggling to afford it?
The Cost of Living with Diabetes
Unfortunately, insulin has been unaffordable in the US for years. The cost of insulin in the past decade alone has tripled, with minimal improvements or changes to the drug. Those without health insurance are the most affected by insulin costs, such as Latinos, who remain the largest uninsured racial and ethnic group in the US. The ...
COVID-19. Monkeypox. Inflation. The housing crisis. Student debt. Climate change. There’s a lot going on. It’s understandable why young people are stressed “basically at all times.” Unfortunately, many believe the future may not be much better for young people. More than half of Americans agree that young people today are unlikely to have a better standard of living than their parents, according to a new poll from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A better standard of living includes having the financial means to comfortably raise a family and own a home, but these goals have gotten harder to achieve with the rising cost of living and housing. Add the student loan debt crisis, ...
