by | Mar 30, 2013 | Magazine
Each year, thousands of children in the U.S. are killed or injured in automobile accidents because they were not riding in child safety seats or because the seats were not installed properly–and a disproportionate amount of those children are African American or Hispanic. For example, African-American children are three times more likely to die in a car crash than Caucasian youngsters.
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“These statistics are unacceptable and the sad truth is that many of these deaths could have been prevented,” says Matt Reynolds, director of safety compliance for DaimlerChrysler Corp., which sponsors Fit for a Kid, a national safety seat education program. “Many [minority] families cannot afford child safety seats or are using second-hand seats that could be damaged or recalled. Language barriers and cultural factors also contribute to car seat misuse and non-use.”
To close this safety gap, DaimlerChrysler and its Fit for a Kid co-sponsor, the National Safety Council (NSC), are partnering with hospitals in major U.S. cities with large minority populations to provide free child safety seats to low-income families. Last year, the program distributed more than 15,000 seats through urban hospitals in Miami, Detroit, San Diego, San Antonio, Albuquerque, Atlanta and elsewhere.
Because the NSC estimates that more than 80% of safety seats are installed and/or used incorrectly, Fit for a Kid’s minority safety initiative also includes a parent education component. Besides giving out free seats, hospital staff also provide families with informational brochures about proper safety seat use, in both English and Spanish. In addition, DaimlerChrysler dealers around the country are offering free safety seat inspections for motorists. Families can call 1-877-Fit-4-A-Kid toll free to locate the nearest participating dealer and schedule an appointment.
For more information about this program, see www.fitforakid.org.
by | Mar 30, 2013 | Magazine
According to a report by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, although the number of Americans who are without health insurance declined since 1998, Hispanics and other racial and ethnic groups continue to comprise a disproportionate number of the overall uninsured.
Hispanics are more than three times as likely to be uninsured than whites and African Americans and Asian Americans are almost twice as likely to be uninsured. Additionally, American Indians were almost three times as likely to be uninsured as whites.
And it isn’t because they aren’t trying. More than 80% of the uninsured hold jobs and work year round, mostly in small businesses, according to the Census Bureau.
Enter the Fair Care for the Uninsured Act of 2001. This bill, which is being circulated in Congress, will provide a refundable credit to workers who are not covered by health insurance through their employers. The plan would be of greatest benefit to those who are not quite poor enough to qualify for Medicaid but too poor to buy health insurance on their own.
“Poor but not poor enough. That’s the phrase we’ve been trying to get across,” says Robert Deposada, executive director of the Hispanic Business Roundtable. “You have this demographic because most minorities are working year-round. Because they are working they do not qualify for Medicaid and are left on their own, which makes it extremely difficult for them.
For example, a large concentration of Hispanics work in the service industry or own their own small businesses, both venues historically do not or cannot offer quality health insurance coverage, according to the Census Bureau.
“You need to look at the kind of employment that people have. Overwhelmingly, insurance is employer-based, and when you, as an individual, do not get insurance from your job, it is extremely expensive [to purchase on your own],” says Deposada.
The bill creates a new tax credit for the purchase of private health insurance, effective Jan. 1, 2002, of $1,000 for individuals and $500 for dependents, with a maximum $3,000 for a family. The credit would automatically be provided through either reduced withholding or estimated tax payments. The individual could opt to have the credit assigned to the insurance company.
“Three thousand dollars toward health insurance would help a whole hell of a lot,” says Deposada.
by | Mar 30, 2013 | Hispanic and Latino Nurses, Magazine
Because the number of Hispanics with access to the Internet continues to increase several times faster than for any other minority group, providing health care information online is quickly becoming an effective way to reach Spanish speaking health consumers.
Gracias Doctor Solutions (GDS), a company that uses radio, television, print media and the Internet to provide information on health care issues for Spanish and Portuguese speakers, recently announced its collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to produce a Spanish language health care Web site. GDS will provide NIH with “culturally sensitive communications to better serve the Hispanic community,” according to the company.
Gracias Doctor Solutions CEO Emilio Williams adds, “NIH and GDS share a commitment to fill the health gap existing today between Hispanics and the [majority] of the U.S. population. We both understand that educating the public with culturally appropriate information is a key step to overcoming that gap.”
The high number of Latinos online seems to spell success for the NIH’s effort to reach out to Hispanics in need of health care advice and information: A recent study by Insight Research, a market-research firm specializing in the telecommunications industry, indicates that 48% of Latino households are online, compared to 45% of white households.
by | Mar 30, 2013 | Hispanic and Latino Nurses, Magazine
A new survey sponsored by the American Heart Association contains good news and bad news for nurses who are working to eliminate diabetes health disparities in Hispanic communities. The poll found that the Hispanic participants’ awareness and knowledge of diabetes risk factors and the importance of managing their disease is extremely high. So what’s the bad news? According to the survey, many Hispanic patients do not act on this knowledge or make lifestyle changes that will help them better control their diabetes.
The survey of 500 people with type 2 diabetes (306 Caucasians, 107 African Americans and 87 Hispanics) found that more than 92% of the Hispanic respondents agreed strongly that diet and exercise are as important as taking medicine when it comes to managing diabetes. Seventy-eight percent said they are willing to increase their physical activity in order to control their disease. Yet nearly half of the Hispanic participants still reported a body mass index measurement in the obese or morbidly obese range. And while 65% had had a glycosylated hemoglobin A1C test (a measure of average blood glucose levels over a 90-120 day period) in the past year, 61% could not remember their last test score.
Given the fact that Hispanics are twice as likely as Caucasians to have diabetes, this is discouraging news. The findings strongly suggest that interventions by nurses must focus on strategies and resources that will help Hispanic patients begin to make the transition from awareness to action.
Robert Bonow, MD, president of the American Heart Association, argues that this failure to make the appropriate behavioral changes may not necessarily be the patients’ fault. “These findings help us understand that while members of the Latino/Hispanic community are eager to manage their health and diabetes, they may not have all the tools to help them do so,” he says.
The association has taken its own step in this direction by developing The Heart of DiabetesSM: Understanding Insulin Resistance, a bilingual program that includes free interactive tools designed to help Hispanic patients take a more active role in controlling their disease and working more closely with their health care team. For more information, visit http://www.americanheart.org/.
by | Mar 30, 2013 | Magazine
According to the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), one in nine adults in the U.S. has chronic kidney disease (CKD), yet most of them are undiagnosed and are not receiving medical treatment. More than 20 million other Americans are at increased risk for this serious condition, which may lead to kidney failure if left untreated. In addition to people with a family history of kidney disease, this high-risk population includes African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders, American Indians and persons with diabetes or high blood pressure.
Because early diagnosis of kidney disease and proper treatment in the illness’s early stages can help prevent or delay kidney failure, the NKF has issued its new 2002 clinical practice guidelines for CKD. Developed as part of the foundation’s Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (K/DOQI), the guidelines were originally published in the February 2002 issue of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.
The guidelines recommend that all individuals who are at high risk for chronic kidney disease have their blood pressure measured and their blood or urine tested for signs of impaired kidney function. Specifically, the NKF advises that checking for creatinine in the blood and for persistent protein in the urine (proteinuria) are the best tactics for diagnosing early kidney damage. The guidelines also include a five-stage clinical action plan based on the severity of the patient’s disease.
The NFK reports that the guidelines are the culmination of two years’ work by volunteer experts in nephrology, pediatric nephrology, epidemiology, laboratory medicine, nutrition, gerontology and social work who conducted a systematic study of evidence published in peer-reviewed medical journals.
The new clinical practice guidelines for chronic kidney disease can be purchased in either book or CD-ROM formats for $25 each. The guidelines are also accessible online at the National Kidney Foundation’s Web site. For nurses interested in conducting patient education programs about CKD, the foundation offers the guidelines in a “caddy” format that includes a poster, patient guides and more; the caddy version sells for $60.
For more information, visit www.kidney.org (click on “K/DOQI”) or contact the NKF at (800) 622-9010, email [email protected].
