Abstract
BackgroundThe development of new-growth communities of Latino immigrants in southern states has challenged the traditional health and social service infrastructure. An interprofessional team of service providers, Latino leaders, and university faculty partnered to establish linkages with the Latino community and providers serving aging adults and to explore the health and social needs of aging Latinos residing in a rural region.MethodsA qualitative descriptive study was conducted through a community-university partnership, the Aging Latino Research Team (ALRT). Data were generated from nine focus groups and 15 key informant interviews with Latino and non-Latino community members and service providers in rural, eastern North Carolina (ENC).ResultsThematic analysis was used to identify common patterns and form recommendations for future research and programs. Themes common to Latino participants were: “We are put off to one side”; “If I can't work, I can't survive”; and “Without documents, you are no one.” Themes common to non-Latino participants were: “Older Latinos are not well served”; “Older Latinos are invisible”; “Older Latinos are undocumented and afraid”; and “Older Latinos are wandering the highway”.ConclusionA major finding of this research was the extent to which discrepancies in perceptions between Latino participants and non-Latino participants exist. These discrepancies revealed ethnic stereotyping and cultural insensitivity as major barriers in access to care.
Highlights
The development of new-growth communities of Latino immigrants in southern states has challenged the traditional health and social service infrastructure
This study focused on three target counties, Duplin, Greene, and Wayne, in eastern North Carolina (ENC), all of which have Latino populations (11% - 22%), exceeding the statewide average (9%) [22]
Our findings are consistent with those of Gonzalez, Haan and Hinton [37] who documented an overall dementia prevalence of 31% among their sample of Latinos in California age 80 and over. These investigators reported 43% of dementia was directly attributable to type 2 diabetes mellitus, stroke or a combination of the two. These findings suggest that the high prevalence of diabetes among Latinos in ENC may lead to increasing prevalence of dementia as this population ages
Summary
The development of new-growth communities of Latino immigrants in southern states has challenged the traditional health and social service infrastructure. Data support that aging Latinos are more likely to have limited formal education, lower income, and poorer health outcomes than the general population [3, 4]. Latino resettlement across the US has generated newgrowth communities especially in the Southeast, Midwest, and Northeast [7,8,9]. New-growth communities are those with an emergent and growing concentration of Latinos in areas with no previously established population [7]. Several studies have reported on the health status of Latinos in new-growth communities in the Midwest and Northeast, but these studies have focused on young Latino men or urban Latino residents
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