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HEALTH DISPARITIES FOR LATINOS IN THE UNITED
STATES
As defined by the National Institutes of Health1,
health disparities are "differences in the incidence, prevalence,
mortality, and burden of diseases and other adverse health conditions
that exist among specific population groups in the United States." As
with other minority groups, data analysis has shown that Latinos
are experiencing significant health disparities. Examples of
these disparities include, but are not limited to the following:
- According to a 1999 report of the Centers for Disease Control,
Hispanics were diagnosed with diabetes at a rate twice that
of white Americans. 2
- Although African Americans and Hispanics represented an
estimated 25 percent of the total U.S. population in 1998,
55 percent of the reported AIDS cases occurred among these
two population groups. 3
- Hispanics have higher incidence and higher mortality rates
due to cancer of the stomach, of the liver, and of the cervix
than non-Hispanic whites. 4
- About 30 percent of Hispanic and 20 percent of black Americans
lack a usual source of health care compared with less than
16 percent of whites. 5
- Hispanic children are nearly three times as likely as non-Hispanic
white children to have no usual source of health care. 6
- The length of time between an abnormal screening mammogram
and the follow-up diagnostic test to determine whether a
woman has breast cancer is more than twice as long for Asian
American, black, and Hispanic women as for white women. 7
- Among preschool children hospitalized for asthma, only
seven percent of black Americans and two percent of Hispanic
children, compared with 21 percent of white children, are
prescribed routine medications to prevent future asthma-related
hospitalizations. 8
- In 1994, Hispanics were twice as likely to have tuberculosis
as the total population. 9
1 Website
for the NIH Addressing Health Disparities Program of Action. http://healthdisparities.nih.gov/whatare.html.
2 Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention Press Release. "CDC Reports Hispanics
are Diagnosed with Diabetes at Twice the Rate of Whites." January
15, 1999. http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r990115.htm.
3 Health Resources
Services Administration. "Eliminating
Health Disparities in the United States." November,
2000.
4 American Cancer
Society. "Cancer Facts & Figures
for Hispanics 2000-2001." http://www.cancer.org/eprise/main/docroot/stt/stt_0.
5 Addressing Racial
and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Fact
Sheet, February 2000. AHRQ Publication No.
00-PO41. Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/disparit.htm.
6 Addressing Racial
and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Fact
Sheet, February 2000. AHRQ Publication No.
00-PO41. Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/disparit.htm.
7 Addressing Racial
and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Fact
Sheet, February 2000. AHRQ Publication No.
00-PO41. Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/disparit.htm.
8 Addressing Racial
and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Fact
Sheet, February 2000. AHRQ Publication No.
00-PO41. Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/disparit.htm.
9 Public Health Service.
Healthy People 2000 Progress Review for Hispanic
Americans. April 29, 1997. http://odphp.osophs.dhhs.gov/pubs/hp2000/PROGRVW/Hispanics/HispanicAm.htm.
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