Advocacy Campaign

Student’s Name: Zoeleni Kamara

Institution: Walden University

Date of Submission: September 25, 2016

Going by recent reports, the rate of death in the United States among the Hispanic community is comparatively lower than that of their Whites counterparts. The difference in this rate is in the margins of two digits’ percent. However, while this case is good news for the Hispanic folks, there is a troubling observation among the number of death rate resulting from diabetes and weight related health issues among the Hispanics. Records indicate that more Hispanics suffer from diabetes related problems than Whites. All the same, it is worth noting that the degree of suffering varied from one Hispanic sub set to another. Often, the number of incidences were dependent on where the come from originally.

Diabetes among Hispanics is a unique problem due to the diverse social cultural background of this population. Consider, for example, Hispanics of Mexican descent are somewhat different from Hispanics of Cuban or Columbian descent (Schneiderman et al., 2014). Often, these differences manifest themselves in terms of cultural differences. All the same, the differences are not overwhelmingly unique in a way that overhauls the underlying common cultural background among all Hispanics that sets them apart as unique population. For instance, there are borderline similarities in the choice of cuisine among the Hispanic community. Similarly, there is a tendency of the female folk being dependent of the male folk among Hispanic folks (Schneiderman et al., 2014). As such, most of the family member health conditions are often not made independently hence causing leading to the possibility of members of the family, especially women not being always proactive.

Given this background, other social factors characteristic of the Hispanic community coalesces to worsen the situation. For example, a significant percentage of the Hispanic community falls below the middle class level. Coupled with few descent employment opportunities, this means that most of the bread winners in Hispanic families have to work for long hours, often working multiple jobs a day. This situation means that they are less likely to find the time and the money to prepare health meals. Similarly, they are also less likely to find the time to exercise.

Another factor leading to weight gain and diabetes prevalence among the Hispanic folk is the comparatively lower level of literacy among the Hispanic community. Given the shaky financial background coupled with the fact that most of the Hispanic community constitute of an immigrant population, most individuals are often ignorant of the risk they could be facing. Another aspect adding to this problem is that in some cases there are immigration concerns involved which may limit the willingness of individuals to seek professional help due to fear of being deportation.

The third factor that does not help solve the diabetes prevalence among the Hispanics is that there are considerable difficulties in bridging the language barrier among non-English speaking Hispanics. Such individuals are less likely to benefit from campaign literature authored in English. Similarly, such individuals may feel less inclined to utilize health centers frequently.

Against these odds, recent years have witnessed significant improvements in the extent to which Hispanic individuals have suffered from diabetes and weight related health issues. For instance, more individuals who previously were unable to access medical insurance have been able to obtain medical cover. This has been largely due to the benefits that were introduced by the affordable care act thus easing the financial burden on individuals. Consequently, more people are able to go for screening to exercise precautionary measures.

In recent years, there have been initiatives to help put the prevalence of diabetes under control among Hispanics. One of these initiatives involves the emancipation of the Hispanic community of the nature and causes of diabetes. The campaign has been integrated in a different number of ways to make it as comprehensive as possible. Whenever individuals visit health centers for medical assistance, they are encouraged by health workers to take tests to keep track of their blood sugar levels. After all, diabetes may go undetected for long resulting to unforeseen health complications. Being aware of the risk, therefore, helps one to stay prepared and institute or precautionary measures.

The second component of this campaign involved the promotion of healthy practices, including the choice of diet to minimize the likelihood of diabetes. Of course, individuals are made aware of the genetic causes as well as the lifestyle causes of diabetes and are encouraged to be proactive enough to adopt a healthy lifestyle. More importantly, since diabetes can now be detected even among the younger population individuals are encouraged to adopt healthy eating habits across the entire family.

Even though these campaigns have brought about an improvement to the health levels of Hispanics, a lot more can be done to reach out to more members of this population. Specifically, several initiatives could be adopted to help fill in the information gaps caused by illiteracy and language barrier. Combined with advocacy for literacy through formal education, these initiatives would result in more comprehensive coverage thus more lives would be saved.

One of the initiatives I would consider implementing is developing literature authored in Spanish that educates the individuals on the causes, prevention and treatment options for diabetes. This would help those individuals who can read in Spanish but not in English. It is also likely that those who can read will propagate the knowledge they obtain to those who cannot read. For optimal results, the literature should be simple, intuitive and interesting to read so that people find it beneficial and easy to read. Failure to do so would be counter effective as people are less inclined to reading boring and complicated information, even when it is intended for their own benefit.

To reinforce the literature, it would be more effective to take advantage of community leaders such as members of the clergy to reach disseminate the information. Given that majority of the Hispanic community is predominantly Catholic; the clergy could reach more people if they were trained to educate their congregations of about the healthy living. Done on a regular basis, the healthy living principles would gradually gain mass adoption. After all, people often act on what they belief and religious leaders could help bridge the cultural, literacy and language barrier gaps that leave individuals prone to the danger of diabetes.

Ultimately, the campaign to reduce the high incidence of diabetes related death rate among Hispanic population boils down to how well the proposed initiatives are implemented. Any initiative by itself is likely to produce significant results but combined together the results are likely to be long lasting. The goal should be to ensure that the population members understand that it is their responsibility to take control of their health status by adopting health lifestyles.

References

Diabetes Among Hispanics: All Are Not Equal. (2016). American Diabetes Association. Retrieved 15 September 2016, from http://www.diabetes.org/newsroom/press-releases/2014/diabetes-among-hispanics-all-are-not-equal.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/

Hispanics' health in the United States. (2015). CDC. Retrieved 15 September 2016, from http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2015/p0505-hispanic-health.html

Schneiderman, N., Llabre, M., Cowie, C., Barnhart, J., Carnethon, M., & Gallo, L. et al. (2014). Prevalence of Diabetes Among Hispanics/Latinos From Diverse Backgrounds: The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). Diabetes Care, 37(8), 2233-2239. http://dx.doi.org/10.2337/dc13-2939