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Cancers set to ‘explode’ in Latino/a populations, expert says

Census Finds Huge Growth in Hispanic Voters

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Cancers set to ‘explode’ in Latino/a populations, expert says

The Latino/a population in the United States is expected to triple by 2050, according to projections from the U.S. Census Bureau. And along with that growth, says University of Illinois professor Lydia Buki, will come a rise in the number of individuals from that population who are diagnosed with cancer.

In particular, based on current statistics, Buki expects that diagnoses of breast and cervical cancers among Latinas will increase significantly.

“It’s just going to explode,” she said. “It’s really a train wreck waiting to happen, and we’re not doing enough to anticipate women’s needs. Even right now, we are not doing a good job of providing services for these women.”

To better serve the physical and mental health needs of this population, with respect to cancer prevention, detection and treatment, Buki said, improvements must be made in two areas: knowledge and access.

“It’s women knowing the importance (of cancer screening), and at the same time being able to access information and screening services,” she said. “Also, we need to provide information and access to support services to women already diagnosed.”

A licensed psychologist and professor of community health, Buki is a co-author with U. of I. doctoral student Melissa Selem of “Cancer Screening and Survivorship in Latino Populations: A Primer for Psychologists,” a chapter in the “U.S. Handbook of Latina/o Psychology” (recently published by Sage).

“These include low levels of health insurance, limited proficiency with the English language, low levels of formal education, low income, cultural factors and institutional racism.”

Breast cancer ranks No. 1 among all cancers afflicting U.S. Latinas, and the five-year survivorship rate for Latinas is lower than that for non-Latina whites. Incidence rates of cervical cancer are up to three times higher than those for non-Latina whites.

“Evidence suggests that Latinos develop greater risk for this type of cancer across generations, given the changes in diet that take place across generations in the United States,” according to Buki and Selem. “As Latinos spend more time in the United Sates, their eating habits become more like those of non-Latino whites, with diets higher in fat and lower in fiber, fruits and vegetables.” And they note, Latinos are more likely than non-Latino whites to present with larger tumors or at more advanced stages of the disease.

Buki noted that the use of promotoras de salud – or peer role models – can be effective in “helping women navigate the health-care system to obtain the exams.”

“Moreover, by discussing cancer, a topic that has been taboo in traditional Latino culture, promotoras are helping create a dialogue in the community around cultural issues such as cancer stigma, fatalism and fear,” she noted. “These discussions, in turn, have the potential to break down barriers to screening.”

In addition to cultural barriers, those posed by language, low education and incomes also must be addressed by providing additional, better and more innovative forms of access to social services and psycho-social programming, Buki said.

“We’re headed down a road where we’re going to lose a lot of human potential in this country if we don’t start addressing the needs of this population.”

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Source: University of Illinois News Bureau

Census Finds Huge Growth in Hispanic Voters

The Census estimates that there were 9.745 million Hispanic voters in 2008, compared to 7.587 million in 2004 — an increase of 28.4%. Overall, an estimated 131.114 million Americans voted in 2008, compared to 125.736 million in 2004, an increase of just 4.3%. Another way of looking at it: there were 5.4 million additional votes cast in 2008 compared to 2004 and about 2.2 million of them were cast by Hispanics.

The data are more meaningful when you think in terms of regions. In 2008, dramatically more Hispanics voted in the Northeast, the South, the West Coast and the Mountain West. While Hispanic voters still are concentrated in the Southwest, they are a rapidly growing political force in every part of the country, except perhaps the Midwest.

The gain was particularly dramatic in California, where there were 2.08 million Hispanic votes in 2004, and 2.96 million in 2008 (which is 21% of all votes in California). (This rapid gain dovetails with the sudden pro-Obama shift in many of California’s red districts.)

Percentage-wise, this gain is nothing compared with the gain in Georgia, though; although Hispanic votes are only 3% of the vote there, they shot up from 26,000 to 128,000 votes from 2004 to 2008. Overall, this has to be seen as good news for Democrats — when a group that makes up half of all new voters polls in your favor by a 2-to-1 margin (Obama polled at 67% in exit polls among Hispanics).

It’s also worth noting that the 5 million increase also included 2 million more black voters and 600,000 more Asian voters — meaning, if you do the math, hardly any gains at all came from white voters. In terms of age groups, young voters (18-24) were the only group to show a statistically significant increase in voting rates (but they still remained the group with the lowest turnout: 49%).

However, the increasing Hispanic numbers were also driven partly by increased participation: the voting rate (the percent of persons of that race who voted) among Hispanics went up 4%, the same percentage that it went up among African-Americans.

It remains to be seen whether Hispanics continue to increase their participation rate (their voting rate was still only 49%, compared with 66% for non-Hispanic whites and 65% for blacks). But even if their voting rate falls off, growth among the Hispanic population will still make them a larger and larger proportion of the pool of voters.

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Source: Crisitunity, Swing State Project