For Latinos, Battle of the Girth Starts at Birth

HSHPS, Medical Professionals Urge Congress to Fund Initiatives to Help Hispanics Become Leaner, Healthier

WASHINGTON, DC (HISPANIC PR WIRE) July 14, 2004 - Some Latino mothers believe the more robust their babies, the healthier they are – a deadly myth that doctors, researchers and public health professionals are trying to dispel with studies, facts and education.

“They don’t know and have never been told that extra girth could set the stage for a lifetime risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer,” said Dr. Fernando Mendoza, a professor of pediatrics at Stanford University who is speaking July 15 in Washington at a congressional briefing on “Diabetes and Obesity Among Hispanics.”

Thursday’s health briefing, sponsored by the Hispanic-Serving Health Professions Schools (HSHPS), will be from 3-4 p.m. at 1507 Longworth Building, Room HC-9, in Washington. HSHPS, a nonprofit organization that represents 22 medical schools and three schools of public health, is working to improve the health of Hispanics through efforts to increase the number of Hispanic health professionals, research initiatives and training physicians in cultural competency. HSHPS is seeking to build a consortium of academics and community-based organizations to improve Hispanic health.

“Over the past decade, obesity has increased with almost a 1 percent gain in obese individuals every year,” said Yanira Cruz, executive director of HSHPS. “While obesity affects all Americans, it is especially troublesome for Hispanics because of the high prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents, who in turn become obese adults.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta recently warned that one of every three children in the United States born in 2000 will become diabetic. In other words, 8 percent of European-Americans, more than 50 percent of African-Americans and more than 60 percent of Hispanic-Americans will develop obesity and type 2 diabetes, according to the CDC.

In addition, the rate of obesity has doubled among Hispanic youth in the last decade, and Hispanic teenagers are twice as likely as their white counterparts to be overweight.

“This is an urgent problem because obesity also leads to an increase in other chronic diseases, including diabetes and cancer,” Cruz said.

In addition to Mendoza, who will discuss “Obesity and Diabetes: An Epidemic Among Hispanics,” other speakers at Thursday’s congressional briefing include Dr. Israel Cuellar, director of the Julian Samora Research Institute at Michigan State University; and

Carlos Ugarte, MSPH, deputy vice president of the Institute for Hispanic Health at the National Council of La Raza. Dr. Cuellar will speak on “The Role of Community-Based Interventions: A Social Science Perspective.” Ugarte will discuss “National Response to Obesity and Diabetes.”

To address these problems, HSHPS, the InterUniversity Program for Latino Research (IUPLR), and the National Council of La Raza, (NCLR) are seeking a $1 million federal grant to combat obesity, diabetes and cancer through the formation of a consortium to develop research, education and community-based prevention programs.

“This funding would help address this urgent problem and redress the chronic under funding of health-related research on Hispanics, who are the largest minority group in the nation,” Cruz said.

In his research, Mendoza found that in addition to poverty, children’s generational status affects stature and obesity. First generation children are smaller and shorter than their non-Hispanic white counterparts. By the second generation, they have grown wider but not taller – thus becoming fatter. Second generation Mexican-American children have the highest prevalence of obesity among all children in the United States.

“Their rate of obesity is 60 percent higher than white children,” he said. “The only way to deal with the epidemic of obesity is for Americans to develop a healthy lifestyle change. To reduce the prevalence of obesity and diabetes in Hispanic communities, we, as health professionals, need to collaborate with scholars that know these communities and with grass-roots advocacy groups that work in these communities.”

Obesity is linked to health problems from heart disease to diabetes, which includes nerve damage, blindness, kidney failure and stroke. Poverty, poor education and lack of access to health care compound the problem. In addition, 27 percent of Hispanic children are uninsured.

To reverse the trend, cultural and economic barriers must be overcome. They include the perceptions that being plump is healthy and that assimilating means eating fast food, which is high in fat, calories and quantity. In addition, exercise must be integrated into the Latino communities among both boys and girls.

“It doesn’t do to tell a mother her chubby baby isn’t healthy and to cut the fat early for a lifetime of health. We have to change the perceptions of a community where the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are overweight and don’t consider that a problem,” Cruz said. “We need to help the community see that bigger isn’t necessarily better.”

Since 1996, the Hispanic-Serving Health Professions Schools (HSHPS) has been working to improve the health of Hispanics through academic and student development, research initiatives and training and other programs. Its membership comprises 22 U.S. medical schools and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the University of North Texas at Fort Worth School of Public Health and Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

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