Utah Department of Health Office of Health Disparities
The Connection: News about overcoming health disparities in Utah

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Literature about Healthcare Access, Obesity and Birth Outcomes

The Center for Multicultural Health (CMH) has completed a literature review to inform efforts to address health problems in minority communities over the next three years.  CMH investigated factors leading to health problems in minority groups and national recommendations to prevent these problems.

The review demonstrated that racism, poverty, language barriers, crime, acculturation, lack of primary care providers and lack of preventive care are all strong factors affecting minority health.  To improve minority health, experts recommended addressing health literacy and cultural competence; informing community members about healthy, inexpensive food choices; improving breastfeeding norms; and promoting preconception family planning and healthcare.

The complete review is available at http://health.utah.gov/cmh/data/LiteratureReview2010.pdf

While a great deal of local data were available about Hispanics/Latinos and numerous national studies had been completed about Black/African American health disparities, very little information was available about the Pacific Islander population.  For this reason, CMH and other partners at the Utah Department of Health are currently completing randomized telephone study of Utah Pacific Islanders.  CMH is also completing focus groups and snowball-style paper surveys among Utah Hispanics/Latinos, Blacks/African Americans and Pacific Islanders.

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