Latino Health Issues

As a diverse group, comprising people who differ in national origin, generation, level of acculturation, socioeconomic class, region of residence, and gender, it is not surprising that there is considerable variation in the overall health of the Latino population of the United States. (Latino is an umbrella term that covers people of diverse points of origin in Latin American countries.) This diversity among Latinos notwithstanding, reviews of the health status of Latinos relative to the dominant non-Latino white population affirm the importance of health disparities as a prevailing feature of the national health pattern. The average life span of Latinos in the country is 20 years shorter than for non-Latino whites. In terms of specific health differences, Latinos are disproportionately likely to die of violence (homicide being the second leading cause of death for Latinos 15 to 24 years of age), develop late-onset diabetes (11% compared with 5% in the general population), develop cervical cancer (with an incidence rate of 17 per 100,000 for Latinas compared with just under 9 per 100,000 for non-Latinas), suffer from asthma (hospitalization rates for Latino youth in some states are five times higher than for whites), and become infected with HIV/AIDS (although Latinos account for approximately 14% of the population of the United States and Puerto Rico, they comprise 18% of AIDS cases diagnoses since the beginning of the epidemic). Among some Latino subgroups, especially Puerto Ricans and Mexican Americans, there are comparatively high rates of illicit drug, and Mexican Americans have comparatively high rates of heavy drinking compared with non-Latino whites. Latinas are more likely to report teen pregnancy and have the highest teen birth rate of all ethnic populations in the United States. Of equal significance as these various health disparities, Latinos are the least likely population in the United States to have health insurance and one of the most likely to encounter linguistic and cultural barriers in accessing effective and appropriate health care. For example, research has shown that monolingual Spanish-speaking Latino patients are significantly less likely than nonHispanic whites to have had a physician visit or an influenza vaccination during the year, while rates for English-speaking Latinos are similar to those of nonHispanic whites. Despite these challenges, in terms of a number of critical health indicators (e.g., various cancers, cardiovascular and pulmonary disease), Latinos tend to exhibit lower rates of disease and ill health than the dominant population.