Hispanic Latinos Health Diabetes

Hispanics/Latinos Health: Diabetes Type 2 diabetes is a worldwide health issue that many people struggle with and Hispanics/ Latinos is one of the largest groups affected. One study has been conducted on Hispanics/Latinos group in United States and findings focused on three main categories. These categories are following: diabetes self-care behaviors and challenges, challenges with limited resources, and challenge with support mechanisms.

Within these categories, there are subcategories that go in detail how Hispanics/Latinos are managing Diabetes Type 2 on daily basis. Based on the results findings, there have been few recommendations for nurses and health care team to consider when delivering care to this specific group. Intro Statistics According to Center of Disease Control, 30.3 million people have diabetes in United States and Type 2 Diabetes accounts for 90% to 95% in adults 45 to 64 of age.

The 23.1 million people are diagnosed and 7.2 million are undiagnosed with diabetes. Among these diabetics, 16% adults are smokes, 90% are overweight and 40% are not physically active. In addition, new cases in Hispanics/Latinos had higher occurrence with Type 2 diabetes. (CDC 2017). The studies have been done to find out the explanations for such high prevalence in Hispanics/Latino group. One of the research studies has been done with qualitative method approach on ten Hispanic adults ages 25 to 80 with Type 2 Diabetes in rural West Texas county in United States. (nursing journal article 1). Data was collected one time via one-hour interview where the participants were asked open-ended questions.

To qualify for this study the participants were supposed meet following criterias; time diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, HbA1C level higher than 7, and annual income between 15,000 to 45,000. (nursing journal article 1). The researchers asked questions about participants daily routine, finances, family support, jobs, and social life. Analyzing the data, the researchers used conventional approach to content analysis. Findings This research study observed struggles and challenges of Hispanic/Latino group managing type 2 diabetes .

Three following challenges categories were observed during the study; diabetes of self-care behavior, limited resources, and support system. With following categories, the main theme of the study was to understand how the participant of type 2 diabetes make it all work. Category 1 Findings Self-Care Behavior Category one findings subcategorized how participants managed diabetes with monitoring blood glucose, diet, cultural influences, exercise and intake of medication. (articles 1) When participants were asked to about the diet and cultural influences, all participants were aware that they need to alter their diet for diabetes.

In fact, participants were accommodated with diet when visiting family and relatives. This finding shows that Hispanic/Latino understand the type 2 diabetes diet alterations that needs to be made on daily basis. On the other hand, taking medication was one of the challenges that participants faced. Most of the participants stated that they knew that medication will help them regulate the insulin level but they encountered a financial challenge to obtain medications. Some participants asked for help and some continued without a medication until they received finances.

Another subcategory that was addressed was monitoring blood glucose level. Majority of participants were used to monitoring the levels of glucose on a daily basis and knew what caused the rise of glucose levels. Although participants monitored glucose levels and knew the cause, struggled with money prevented them to purchase glucometer supplies. Lastly, exercising on regular basis was the main challenges for participants. Almost all participants stated that they were too tired to exercise because their daily routine of working, cleaning house and taking care of the family made already tired. Some stated that the illness itself made them feel fatigue. (article1) Category 2 Findings Limited Resources Limited resources are one of the major challenges that participants face every day.

In this category the following subcategories are income, employment, finding health care resources and not enough knowledge about management of type 2 diabetes and mechanics of health care services. (article1) Income and money is the main problem that participant encountered when it came to purchasing the medication, healthy food and supplies to manage diabetes. All of the participants complained about the high cost of medication that set a barrier from buying diabetes medication and supplies. Moreover, seventy percent of participants stated that they had to alternate between different types of food because of high prices. For example, instead buying meat they buy beans.

Money was always been the greatest issue among these participants and there was constant prioritization between paying for bills, buying medication and food. Similarly, the employment was one of the struggles for participants when it came to finding job, retaining and reporting to work. Some of them quit their jobs because of physical limitations and tried to find new job to fit their needs. Also, one of the puzzling story was when one participant lost his job and benefits do to depression after finding out his diagnosis. Employment issue made it hard to manage home, work and diabetes.

Another huge problem that participants came across was finding health care resources when they needed. Many stated that they turned to family, friends and church asking to help find free or low-income services to obtain medication and supplies to meet their basic need. Nobody from participants stated that they turned to primary care services to get help. Lastly knowledge about diabetes self-management and mechanics of healthcare service of category number 2 was a significant issue.

Participant understood that they are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and that they needed to alter their eating habits and exercise but they did not have adequate knowledge about self-management. Participants understood the affects of having or not having Medicaid or Medicare but they did not understand the regulation for accessing these resources. Deficiency of understanding the healthcare mechanism and cost involvement some of them postponed getting the medications and supplies. Additionally, the health literacy and not good coordination of health services played a big role in obtaining the right resources. Category 3 Challenge with Support System Three subcategories challenge that participants encountered were family support, spiritual connections and support from faith communities. Seventy percent of participants stated that they did not get financial support from family and that they worked to cover their needs. Some stated that they were not able to even work to support their family because of diabetes. Many asked for family support to help with shopping, cleaning house, and transportation.

In addition, family members of participants knew the financial burden having diabetes but did not do much about the use of income. Moreover, it was evident from interviews of some participants that the family had very little accommodations for finances, physical activities. On the other hand, some participants felt the burden if the family members were helping out. The spiritual connections and faith from community had a positive impact on the participants. Some stated that they relied on God and his healing. Others were seeking for support from church members to be comforted, listened, prayed for and emotionally and financially supported. Conclusion Based on the findings, it is evident that self-care behavior, support mechanism and limited resources issues are still present in our society and they need to be addressed in order to decrease type 2 diabetes disease.

As healthcare workers we have the opportunity to make the difference in peoples lives. According to the study, there are some recommendations that were made to make these differences. First, nurse need to see situations that needs to be address on self-care behavior. With this being said, there needs to be improvement in understanding of culture to deliver appropriate care and work on programs to reduce disparities in healthcare services. For instance, to address the exercise issues there have been a study made that creating walking communities and providing with pedometer increased the diabetics walking more which improved their health(article 2).With this being said, as nurses we can get out there in community and initiate the exercise programs and can educate what equipment are available from government assistance or even utilizing phone applications.

In addition, nurses need to get the deeper understanding of social and psychological factors that impact self-management behavior from different cultural and socioeconomical backgrounds. (article) Moreover, healthcare providers need to look beyond their practices and consider making available healthcare services across communities. Also, there needs to be a consideration into brining medical homes to communities for low income persons with type 2 diabetes to make medications and supplies available with low or no cost to address the issue with limited resources.

Having closer access the residents will benefit from having financial constraints and resources. Also, the healthcare providers, nurses and patients need to work together to address the financial circumstances related to health care benefits. (article 1) Perhaps giving an information on what government assistance programs are available who are disabled and low income to prevent having delayed treatments and supplies. Lastly, having the issue with support system makes it little more difficult to address but as nurses we can educate the family members on how this disease impact has on a person and encourage to support their loved ones.

Also, nurses can aid in searching for support communities, counseling and educational services that can be within reach of the patient to support in needing moments. To conclude, healthcare workers can decrease the number of type 2 diabetes by coming together as a team and working on developing health programs, educating, utilizing resources, understanding disparities and empowering patients to increase the health wellbeing. CDC Features. (2017, August 08).

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