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In an effort to improve the care provided to Hispanic patients, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the National Hispanic Medical Association have partnered to publish Caring for Hispanic Patients. The annual, peer-reviewed journal focuses on diseases that affect Hispanics disproportionately, including diabetes, human immunodeficiency virus and asthma. As a backdrop to the clinical issues, the journal also addresses the issues of changing demographics and linguistic competency.
Despite being the largest minority group in America, representing 13.3 percent of the total U.S. population, Hispanics face many barriers to health care, including language, cultural beliefs, lack of health insurance, inadequate transportation, and a less-than-friendly health care system. Many of the health conditions disproportionately affecting Hispanics are the result of the devastating impact of socioeconomic status on health. As the journal’s introductory editorial points out, nearly one-half of Hispanics under age 65 and two-thirds of working-age Hispanics with low incomes are uninsured for all or part of each year.
“America’s physicians need to better understand the unique issues that affect the growing number of Hispanic patients in their practices,” said Elena V. Rios, M.D., M.S.P.H., president and chief executive officer of the National Hispanic Medical Association. “Traditional models of care must evolve to accommodate groups of patients with their own distinct culture, customs, languages and beliefs. I applaud the AAFP for its commitment to this collaborative effort, which aims to increase physicians’ knowledge of Hispanic health and decrease the significant health disparities in our Hispanic communities.”
Among the articles featured in Caring for Hispanic Patients are:
-- Linguistic Competency: Addressing the Language Issues of Patients with Limited English Proficiency
-- Management of Type 2 Diabetes in the Hispanic Community: Overcoming Barriers
-- Asthma’s Choking Effects on Hispanics
-- Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the Hispanic Community
-- Health Care for Hispanic Elder Patients
Since its creation nearly four decades ago, family medicine has delivered on its promise to care for populations that had largely been overlooked by mainstream medicine. Today, family physicians provide the majority of care for America’s underserved rural and urban populations, and they handle 19 percent of all office visits by Hispanic Americans, second only to general internists, according to data from the 2002 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.
“As stewards of medicine and advocates for patients, the American Academy of Family Physicians has long been committed to overcoming the negative effects of health disparities,” said Michael O. Fleming, M.D., president of the AAFP and a practicing family physician in Shreveport. La. “This publication is a meaningful step in our efforts to foster cultural competency and provide better care to our Hispanic patients.”
The American Academy of Family Physicians has maintained a commitment to addressing issues of culture for more than 15 years. Since the mid-1980s, the Academy has produced several video teaching modules addressing issues related to racial and ethnic discrimination in medicine. Most recently, the AAFP developed Quality Care for Diverse Populations, a video module to improve physicians’ cultural competence. As part of the Academy’s ongoing patient outreach efforts, much of the content on the AAFP’s patient Web site, familydoctor.org, has been recently translated into Spanish.
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