Health Concerns in Latino Communities

In The Eye of the Storm is an information pamphlet that mimics the structure of the Center for Disease Control Reports, but focuses Latina women, a group historically underrepresented in medical research and discourse.

The main concerns that the interviewed healthcare providers were the disparities in usage of reproductive health in Latinas, and the prevalence of sexual violence in Latin communities. Some of the concerns have to do with cultural barriers, such as healthcare providers that can speak Spanish, culturally-senstive communitcation with the patient, and factors such as mobility and insurance status that may also impede doctor visits. 

The report from the South Bronx shows a quite elevated rate of abortion (29%), and many of those who had had two or more abortions. This indicates that the healthcare that these women are receiving is not preventative care that could prevent unwanted prengnacies.

The reports in Oxnard, California are alarming. These detail the rate of sexual violence, domestic violence and abuse, substance use, and ignoring symtoms that would require medical attention. These numbers indicate that the women in this community are not receiving medical attention that they need. Furthermore, these also point towards a culture of secrecy when it comes to women's sexual health. 

Selected Data on Latinas in the U.S. and Puerto Rico

Latino households are more likely than White households to be headed by women. Fifty-two percent of Latina female-headed hosueholds in the U.S. live inpoverty while in Puerto Rico, 70% of female-headed households live in poverty. One out of three Latinas lives below the federal poverty level. The data here points towards some common trends found all over the world: Early pregnancy is correlated with lower educational attainment, lower income and poverty. Lower income and single parenthood are barriers to women seeking healthcare.

Latinas have a higher mortality rate than other ethnic groups in the United States for cervical cancer, breast cancer and AIDS, and are more likely to be diagnosed in the later stages.

This poem depicts the struggle that US Latinos face with their symptoms dismissed or minimized. The United States has one of the highest maternal mortality rates that can in large part be attributed to dismissal of symptoms of minority patients. 

In this poem, the poet's brother's diabetes is dismissed as heartburn, and is refused care and pain management. 

This and other surveys also indicate that within the United States, Latinos are the least likely to use contraception, and have the highest rate of early unplanned pregnancy and STD infection. It is pertinent to show that the same issues that the WHO outlined in 1995 still persist to this day. Latinos are a particularly vulnerable population, as a result of linguistic and ethnic discrimination, lack of access to healthcare, and a peristent problem of healthcare providers ignoring the concerns of minorities.

This document is a study performed in border towns on either end of the US-Mexico border, in the Texas area. The investigators examined the attitudes and knowledge level of Latinas on either side of the border in regards to breast cancer. The results show that Mexican Latinas are on average more knowledgeable about breast cancer than US Latinas. This was attributed to a breast cancer awareness campaign in Mexico. However, Mexican Latinas were less likely to seek out professional preventive care such as mammograms, and instead used self-examination as their primary form of detection. This was attributed to the lower levels of insurance coverage in Mexico.