MPR’s Elizabeth Baier reports on the struggles Latino immigrants have with various health conditions and healthcare access.
Like most people who immigrate to the U.S., Latino immigrants are usually healthier when they first arrive in the U.S. than U.S. born residents. But within a generation, many Latino immigrants lose that health advantage. And they are almost twice as likely to develop diabetes and other chronic diseases, compared to people who are born here.
Awarded:
2012 MNSPJ Page One Award, second place in Radio - Hard News report category
Transcripts
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ELIZABETH BAIER: Walk into the kitchen of Eugenia Delgado's home in Faribault, and you'll see a dinnertime battle about to play out.
EUGENIA DELGADO: Gil. George. Guys, it's time to eat.
ELIZABETH BAIER: 5-year-old George and 9-year-old Gilbert bolt out of a room and take a seat at the kitchen table. Delgado serves each a plate of pan-fried tilapia, mashed potatoes, corn, and steamed vegetables, and there's some pushback on the vegetables.
SPEAKER: Just focus on corn and the mashed potato.
EUGENIA DELGADO: No, and a little bit of vegetables.
SPEAKER: Don't give me a broccoli.
EUGENIA DELGADO: Sometimes I fight with them to eat. I worry about them because they are pre-diabetic.
ELIZABETH BAIER: Pre-diabetic because mom is diabetic. Delgado was diagnosed with gestational diabetes when she was pregnant with George. The boy's weight is fine now, but George is more likely to become obese during childhood and develop type 2 diabetes later in life.
Delgado is among the thousands of Mexicans who've settled in Minnesota in the last two decades. She says adjusting to life in the rural Midwest was easy, but access to cheap, unhealthy food and a sedentary lifestyle took a toll on her health. She gained 70 pounds during her first two years in the US, well before her sons were born.
EUGENIA DELGADO: In Mexico, you walk. Now, I walk only to the garage. And then I get to the store, and I'm looking for the closest parking, and I don't walk no more. We got lazy here.
ELIZABETH BAIER: Since her diabetes diagnosis, Delgado has become more mindful of what she cooks at home. That means fewer tacos and fried food, more steamed vegetables and homemade burgers. She's also lost some weight. But like many immigrants who now call Southern Minnesota home, she works long shifts at a food processing plant and says convenience often trumps over cooking.
EUGENIA DELGADO: When I work 2 o'clock in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon, I am so tired. I get home, and I don't want to move. And I stop, and I buy a pizza.
ELIZABETH BAIER: Latinos are the fastest growing minority group in Minnesota. From 2000 to 2010, the number of Latinos in the state jumped nearly 75% to more than 250,000 people. That represents about 4.7% of the state population. By 2035, demographers estimate there will be more Latinos than Blacks, Asians, or American Indians in Minnesota. And together, minorities will make up about a quarter of the state's population.
Much of that growth will happen outside of the Twin Cities, in places like Rochester, Worthington, and Faribault. But as these communities grow, so do the disparities affecting their health and way of life. Statewide, Latinos and other minorities are more likely to be poor and uninsured and develop diabetes and other chronic diseases. This rising prevalence of health problems, coupled with a growing minority community, poses a unique challenge for health care officials.
JOSE GONZALEZ: If our populations of color and American Indians are growing and yet we have the largest health disparities, that's an awful big expense that we're not taking care of in the long run, especially when it comes to chronic diseases.
ELIZABETH BAIER: Jose Gonzalez is the director of Minnesota's Office of Minority and Cultural Health. He says expanding health care coverage is a good first step toward narrowing the health gap between whites and racial and ethnic minorities. So is finding bilingual health care professionals who can ask nuanced questions to understand how their patients manage their health at home.
JOSE GONZALEZ: Do you have a health care provider that knows to ask Spanish speaking immigrants if they've tried any home remedies before they came in? Did they bring medicines from home? If you're aware of these things, it saves a whole lot of trouble, a whole lot of unnecessary testing. It does contribute to managing our health care costs.
ELIZABETH BAIER: Managing the health of low-income minorities is the focus of a number of programs across Minnesota.
EUGENIA DELGADO: Hi. How are you?
SPEAKER: Good. How are you?
EUGENIA DELGADO: Fine. I need aspirin.
ELIZABETH BAIER: Twice a month, Eugenia Delgado visits HealthFinders, a community clinic located in the basement of a Methodist church near Dundas. The clinic opened in 2005, and volunteer doctors and nurses treat about 750 low-income patients a year. Many patients work in the poultry or food processing industry and live in the sparsely populated region between Rochester and the Twin Cities.
HealthFinders is the only place Delgado, who is uninsured, can get her diabetes testing supplies and other medications for free. She also attends a diabetes class there.
CHARLES MANDILE: [SPEAKING SPANISH]
How is everybody? [SPEAKING SPANISH]
ELIZABETH BAIER: HealthFinders Executive Director Charlie Mandile emphasizes lifestyle changes, like eating habits and exercise. He says these are just as important to treating chronic diseases as traditional medicine.
CHARLES MANDILE: You know, what happens outside of the doctor's office. When you're at home, what are you doing? What are you eating? What kinds of exercise are you doing? Are you even taking your pills?
ELIZABETH BAIER: Mandile says, even though on paper they suffer higher rates of chronic disease, immigrants have other health advantages.
CHARLES MANDILE: In terms of their social connections, their family structures, that made them quite healthy in their country of origin. Really, I think our job now becomes adapting our instruction and lifestyles here in the US to really get them to take care of themselves in the best way that they know how to.
ELIZABETH BAIER: For the Delgado family, taking care of their health is a process. And with two young boys, Eugenia has learned there's always room for negotiation.
EUGENIA DELGADO: I peel an apple, and I put a caramel. I give a banana, things like this. But they want something different, too. And I understand that because sometimes, I feel like I want a cookie, I want a cracker, or I want a brownie. I mean, I want it too. So I was like, poor kids, you know?
ELIZABETH BAIER: The day I visited, neither mom, nor the boys, won the kitchen table battle. George and Gilbert ate their vegetables, but only after she agreed to put ranch dressing on them. Elizabeth Baier, Minnesota Public Radio News, Dundas.