ATLANTA — Georgia's Latino
A new report highlighting the healthcare needs within Georgia's Latino population was released Thursday. The 2023 Health Status of Latinos in Georgia Report is a collaboration between Morehouse College, Emory's School of Nursing, and nonprofit Latino Community Fund.
Dr. Roxana Chicas with Emory's School of Nursing says it's been over a decade since a report of this kind has been released.
"We did qualitative work, where we went out into the community, did focus groups, asked members of the Latino community what were the pressing needs and health needs. We also looked at the literature and lots of databases to get information about Latinos," she said.
Some of that data was based on how the pandemic played a role in the community. The report showed life expectancy among Latinos in Georgia dropped from 81.8 years in 2019 to 79.8 years in 2020, with COVID-19 accounting for 90% of the reduction.
Chicas said the pandemic also played a role on mental health within the community.
"COVID-19, I do believe that it affected the mental health of Latinos," she said. "Not so much the isolation, but the societal kind of disregard for them, because so many of them were still out there working and many of them were not able to adhere to six feet apart. They were having employers that weren't giving masks or putting in safety protections for them. You can imagine how that must feel to feel devalued as if their lives don't matter as much."
The last time a report of this kind was released was in 2012. Chicas said the most alarming difference has been the statistics surrounding mental health.
Now, there are more than 1 million Latinos in Georgia but less than 100 Spanish-speaking mental health providers. The need for help grew throughout the pandemic.
The report highlights that in 2019, suicide was the second most common cause of death among 15 to 34 year old Latinos.
"We have a mental health crisis within the Latino community and for a long time we have not talked about it and now the community is talking about it," Chicas said.
Chicas added that for a long time, it has been believed that the Latino community tends to be more healthy than other communities. She explains that term is "Hispanic paradox" and mentioned several theories.
"One is that the healthiest are the ones to immigrate to the United States. Also that there's such a close knit community that they help each other out, each other out so much and that's what makes them so strong and resilient," she said. "But once you start looking at the data, looking deeper, you start to see these disparities."
The report also shows an above-average prevalence of diabetes and high blood for Latinos in Georgia compared to state averages.
Data also shows 29% of Latinas in Georgia reported not seeing a doctor due to cost, compared to 18% the national average among Latinas.
Chicas said it's also important to break it down further and look at each individual culture and country of origin.
"For example, in the Puerto Rican population, you see much higher rates of asthma than you do perhaps in the Mexican population. That just tells us that communities, we are not homogenous. We need to tailor interventions or resources, depending on the needs of the community," she said.
Chicas hopes the younger Latino population finds interest in joining the healthcare workforce to be able to have more culturally-diverse staff in the coming years.
"When you have healthcare clinicians who look like you, they speak your language, your culture, then health outcomes are better. People feel more comfortable going in to talk to a healthcare provider instead of having an interpreter where some nuances are missed," she said.