The city of Boston just released its 2009 “Health Report.” Lots of interesting factoids, such as:
Boston’s Black and Latino residents experience higher levels of chronic disease, mortality, and poorer health outcomes than White residents…The city has become more racially and ethnically diverse over the past several decades. In 2007, approximately 28% of Boston residents were foreign born, originating from a wide array of countries such as Haiti, China and Colombia. This diverse population brings with it fluency in a variety of languages including Spanish, French, Chinese, and Vietnamese. The percentage of Latino residents in Boston has continued to increase from 1980 (6.4%) to 2007 (16.9%). Understanding the diversity within our city is essential to combating racial/ethnic disparities that persist in medical care for a number of health conditions and services.
The commissioners themselves blog on it at WBUR’s Commonhealth site. Click here for the full report, or below for individuals chapters.
Also see my blog entry on the topic of health disparities.
From the Health of Boston 2009
June 20, 2009 at 12:36 pm
As a Latino, I am very pleased to see the recognition of how important it is for our community leaders to understand the unique health care needs within our diverse community. Many Latinos lack basic information due to language barriers. Efforts are being made to bridge the information gap. Just this week The Lance Armstrong Foundation launched a national campaign to support Spanish-speakers facing cancer. LIVESTRONG SurvivorCare, which is available in Spanish at http://www.livestrong.org/espanol, also provides free professional support via a toll-free number 1-866-927-7205. http://budurl.com/LAFesp
We need to make sure our community stays engaged and supported, not isolated, with their health issues.
Thank you.
June 30, 2009 at 10:23 am
Great information and a bit surprising in some areas. Hopefully as a state we can begin to develop serious action toward preventative health and medicine.