Epidemiologic Paradox Analysis

Since Latinas continue to lead all women by having the highest birthrates. Leo Chavez gives examples of just how high the Latina Fertility is but as you will see with the numbers they are going down significantly, “ in the 1970’s, 7 to 8 kids from one woman, in 1980’s 4.4, in the 1990’s 3.4 and in the 2000’s 2.4” (Chavez) As we can see the number significantly dropping but it is still higher than any other group. What was fascinating was that their was even a point in time where a lot of people were concerned with the amount of Latin babies being born. A big issue was what they call “anchor babies”. Which are babies who are born in the U.S. and their parents are here illegally and hopefully be able to become citizens themselves. It was seen as an issue because a lot of the American people they would benefit from the benefits that the Americans get. Obama also saw the teen pregnancy as an issue, so he took a teen pregnancy prevention imitative in 2010, with the goal to help educate these young girls. Even though this initiative was not specially designed for Mexican American teens this is great resource that could give the proper education that their parents for whatever reason have not. Uriel Garcia gives an interesting take on why Latinas continue to have the highest teen birthrates, “ The main factor in the increase birth rate is that Mexican American women are much younger than women in any other minority group

Limited access to health care for Spanish Speaking populations is due to inability to afford services, difficulty with transportation, dissatisfaction with services, language barriers and inability to understand treatment plans. Health indicators of Spanish Speaking populations suggests that health outcomes continue to be behind other population groups, they also remain below goals established by Healthy People 2010 (Butler, Kim-Godwwin, & Fox, 2008). The US Spanish Speaking population represents a particular vulnerable subset of US Hispanics that have lower-income, less education, poor perceived health status and poor access to the health care System (Dubar & Gizlice, 2008).

Financial barriers to access health care are common in a low-income family when they are uninsured or underinsured. Many uninsured and undocumented immigrant received federal and state health care coverage. Latinos and African American are the ethnicities that are disproportionally get affected. Limited access to a doctor when they are sick, taking non-prescribed medication and holding off recommended treatment is only some of the problems they encountered (Carrillo et al., 2011).

Hispanics are the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority group, estimated to be 54 million living in the United States of America. (Office of Minority Health and Health Equity). They work very hard to make both ends meet and also to stay in good health. They are relatively as a source of cheap labor in the American labor market This paper will dwell more on the Hispanic current Health status, how health promotion is described by the group and what health disparities exists for this group.

Since many Mexican Americans aren’t very open with their parents about this subject, many may avoid telling them when they think they are pregnant or if they have become pregnant. This leads to lack of proper health care they need in order to have a healthy pregnancy. The baby, as well as the mother can have a high risk of health issues. The habits of these adolescent mothers are more like to be unhealthy, especially if they are not aware that they are pregnant in the first place. The younger the mother may be, the higher the infant is at risk for dying the first year of its life (Medline Plus, 2014). The bodies of these teens are not ready for childbearing and delivery so this also puts them at risk. Infants that are born to adolescents are 2-6 times more likely to be born with a low birth weight (Medline Plus, 2014). The baby and mother also have a higher risk of illness and death. Some medical complications that may arise are as follows: Significant anemia, Placenta Previa , Toxemia and Pregnancy-induced hypertension. Other risks of becoming a teen mother is that they have a higher chance of dropping out of school, only 36% of Mexican American teen mothers will finish high school (NCSL,

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (2015) provided an overview of the Hispanic population, in which they reported the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) categorization of the population. Specifically, OMB defines Hispanics as a population which comprises of Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, South and Central Americans as well as people from other Spanish cultures (CDC, 2015). According to a report compiled by the CNN Library (2015), Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States. In fact, the size of the Hispanic group in the United States is only second to the size of the Hispanic group in Mexico. The report further explained that there were approximately 54 million Hispanic people in the United States by 2013. The number showed a 2.1% increase in the Hispanic population between 2012 and 2013 (CNN Library, 2015). The total Hispanic population in 2013 constituted about 17% of the United States total population. Gonzalez-Barrera and Lopez (2013) inferred that people of Mexican origin constituted the largest number of Hispanics in the United States. They maintained that there were approximately 33.7 million Hispanics from Mexico in the United States by 2012 (Gonzalez-Barrera & Lopez, 2013). The Mexican-Hispanics population is represented by people who are born in the United States and immigrants from Mexico.

Approximately 1 in 6 individuals are Hispanic in the United States, and the population is expected to grow to 1 in 4 by 2035 (CDC, 2015). Given that, Hispanics are the biggest minority group in the US (CDC, 2015). The leading cause of death among the Hispanic population is heart disease and cancer responsible for around 2 out of 5 deaths (CDC, 2015). Hispanics have a 50% greater chance of death resulting from diabetes or liver disease than whites (CDC, 2015). Additionally, there are 3 times as more uninsured Hispanics than whites (CDC, 2015). According to the US average, whites are 15 years older than the Latino population, so prevention will greatly benefit the health of the Latino population (CDC, 2015).

The Hispanic community in the largest minority in the USA and the fastest growing, it is also one with a high incidence of preventable diseases such as Diabetes, periodontitis, colorectal cancer and HIV. Obesity and teen age pregnancy are significantly more prevalent in Hispanic/Latino population as well. Rate of vaccination is also below that of the majority of the population. Addressing their health care makes good public health and economic sense.

Major disparities continue to exist in spite of America’s “Affordable Care Act”, Although minorities suffer disease five times greater than the rest of the nation, minorities represent the majority of the disparity. Infant Mortality has always been America’s indicator as to the state of the countries health status. America is one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations in the world, However, America ranks number 24th in the world for infant mortality. Puerto Rican and Indian women rank highest among ethnic classes with low infant mortality rates. Some researchers have found lack of prenatal access as the key contributing factor to low mortality and birth weights among these two ethnic classes.

The information cited in this paper provides an insight into the health disparities that exist in the Hispanic population. It shows that Hispanics have increased rates of health problems when compared to other racial groups in the United States. These disparities have been shown to be connected to socioeconomic status. The information cited in this paper show that Hispanics have lower socioeconomic status than whites and their low socioeconomic status is implicated as a risk factor for health status. Furthermore, Hispanics face increased barriers to accessing care, receive poorer quality care, and ultimately experience worse health outcomes. For example, Hispanics have higher morbidity rates for diabetes, obesity, cancer, asthma and proliferative

One of the major areas for discrepancies in health outcomes with age exists across differing ethnic and racial groups. Trends in the research show that groups of individuals who belong to an ethnic or racial minority tend to have more negative health outcomes. Higher mortality and poorer morbidity for African Americans is consistently found compared to non-Hispanic white populations (Smedley et al., 2003). Moreover, mortality rates tend to be lower in foreign-born Hispanics and Asian immigrants to the United States compared to Americans born in the United States (Palloni & Arias, 2004; Hummer, Benjamins, & Rogers, 2004). This finding has been attributed partially to selective migration and return migration in older adulthood.

In the United States, there are disparities between the different racial groups when it comes to low birth weights and premature births. Evidence of this can be seen with information collected Reichman (2005). She found that African Americans have the highest rate with this accounting for 13.0%. While whites are reporting 6.5% and Hispanics are seeing figures of 6.5%. However, inside the Hispanic demographic there are differences in these numbers as Puerto Ricans have 9.4%. These disparities are not tied to economic status with many educated African American women having children of low birth weight. Whereas, there are differences between select segments of the Hispanic population in contrast with other sub groups. (Reichman, 2005)

There are many health disparities that exist among the Hispanic population. Many of these are chronic conditions that affect the population. Obesity is one of the many examples of conditions that have increased for the Hispanic population. The CDC (2014) states, “The prevalence of obesity among female Mexican American adults during 2007–2010 was larger than the prevalence among female white, non-Hispanic adults during the same years” (p. 1). This is one of the many statistics that show an example of a health disparity in the Hispanic population. Another example of a problem that is prevalent in the Hispanic community is the health promotion and screening rates. The CDC (2014) states, “A smaller percentage of Hispanic adults aged 50-75 years reported being up-to-date with colorectal cancer screening in 2010 than their non-Hispanic adult counterparts”

Oddly enough, even with all the medical technological brought forth by the US we are still ranked with a higher infant death rate than Japan. In a study published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and titled "America's Health Starts with Healthy Children: How do States Compare?” the report found that the high infant death rate is correlated with the lack of education of the mother. Access to healthcare is another correlation to the problem since about 45 million Americans, or 15 percent of the population, are now estimated to be without any form of health insurance (O'Connor, 2008).

Using a Chi Square test, the health endangerment between U.S. born and non U.S. born women were compared. Among 1,176 U.S. born women, 938 had endangered health conditions. Of the 197 immigrant women, 145 women had endangered health conditions. The difference in the health endangerment conditions was statistically significant; x2(1, N=1,373) = 3.840453, p = 0.05. The findings suggest that U.S. born women did not have better health conditions than those who were not born in the U.S.