The Diabetes in the Hispanic Population - Research Paper Example

?Diabetes in the Hispanic population: The fact that diabetes is on the rise in both adults and children presents an alarming situation and calls for immediate attention and consideration. Sedentary lifestyle and junk food diet are highly blamed by researchers and physicians as diabetes rate soar. It is an established reality that with increasing consumption of junk food diet, obesity is also increasing with predisposition to diabetes. Many efforts have been made over the last many years to raise awareness in the American public about the benefits of eating healthy food because unhealthy food such as junk food items including sweetened fizzy drinks, snacks, burgers, and other processed food items are fraught with fats, sugars, and salts. Choosing one’s food from the wide range of food choices available to one today is not any easy task and special thought should be put into the matter of what one should eat and what not. As processed food is considered to form an important element of the contemporary times, diabetes is also gaining similar type of notorious recognition. This paper attempts to discuss the increasing incidence of diabetes in the Hispanic population and presents logical arguments defending this rise in incidence with the help of evidence based research. It is a deplorable reality that the Hispanic population is reported to be more predisposed to diabetes in comparison to non-Hispanic white population in America. In accordance with the 2006 National Examination Survey conducted in America, it was revealed that “Hispanics were 1.5 times as likely as non-Hispanic Whites to die from diabetes” (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Some have even suggested that diabetes is a disease with ethnic significance as Hispanics living in America are more likely to be subjected to diabetes as compared to other races. Actually the Hispanic population comprises of many different culturally distinct subpopulations due to which analyzing the correct extent to which diabetes prevails in each of this subpopulations is never an easy task. Nevertheless, according to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance survey conducted to analyze the prevalence of diabetes among Hispanics and non-Hispanic white adults residing in six different US states, it was revealed that Hispanics continued to be diagnosed with diabetes at a rate that significantly surpassed the rate by which non-Hispanic people were diagnosed with this disease. On the basis of six areas consisting of age, sex, weight, height, BMI, and education, it was revealed after Center of Disease Control analyzed the survey data that “the age-adjusted diabetes prevalence among Hispanics was approximately twice that among non-Hispanic whites (9.8% versus 5.0%)” (Burrows et al., cited in CDC, 2004). It is stressed in the research report by CDC (2004) that diabetes should be taken as an alarmingly serious situation which is associated with even more alarming morbidity and premature death rate. It should be remembered that this disease continues to influence the Hispanic population in America in a disproportionate manner and this disproportion results from the differences in health and quality care services provision. Diabetes is found to be just a bit below the belt in those areas where quality health care is within easy access of the Hispanic people and ice versa while those Hispanic individuals were reported to be in immediate need of intervention and attention who did not even have a high school education which also establishes the relationship between education level and diabetes predisposition. The condition of Hispanics being more predisposed to diabetes is steadily increasing and it is general consensus among researchers that this rise is to be blamed on the epidemic of obesity which is currently threatening the American nation. Considering the fact that roughly 41.3 million Hispanic people reside in the United States, it means that one in every seven Americans turns out to be Hispanic. Hispanic Americans form the second largest population in US due to which the need to address the issue of rising incidence of diabetes among Hispanics also increases. 2003 CDC report prepared by expert US researchers revealed that “more than 1.5 million Hispanic Americans had diabetes, up from less than 1.2 million in 1997” (Fraser, 2005). Unless the food culture is changed significantly in the Hispanic population, diabetes cannot be tackled in a satisfactory manner because obesity should be essentially seen as an ailment which needs to be addressed before considering the issue of diabetes prevalence. As many as 20 million people in America are suffering from the consequences of diabetes which include weight loss, fatigue, damaged defense mechanisms etc. and this number is expected to be doubled by the end of 2025 (UCLA Health System, 2004). Eating healthy is important because it improves the defense mechanism of an individual and imparts strength and vitality to it which is essentially needed in the present times because people are required to work more in order to meet the requirements of fierce competitiveness. The tendency of relying excessively on junk food diet makes a person sluggish and predisposed to diabetes which means that the chances of suffering the complications of diabetes like kidney disease, blindness, weight loss, heart problems, and stroke also increase. Type II diabetes was once considered to be an adult disease but now, it is undeniably affecting both adults and children from every race though the ratio is a bit higher among those who have Hispanic origin. Incorporating effectual lifestyle changes like exercise and healthy nutritious diet in everyday life can bring miraculous results for preventing obesity and resulting diabetes from threatening the nation. This is because studies suggest that “a healthy diet and moderate physical activity of 30 minutes a day, five days a week, reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 58 percent” (UCLA Health System, 2004). Concluding, this much remains clear from the above discussion that diabetes is an issue which should be considered very seriously because Hispanic people form the second largest group in the United States and the rising incidence of diabetes in this large group calls for immediate response. The fact that the Hispanic people are far more predisposed to diabetes than the non-Hispanic white population further exacerbates the problem and should be noticed by official authorities and disease control agencies on every level. References: CDC. (2004). Prevalence of Diabetes Among Hispanics --- Selected Areas, 1998—2002. MMWR Weekly 53(40): 941-944. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5340a3.htm Fraser, J. (2005, June 27). Diabetes and Hispanic Americans: more than just genetics. Natural News. Retrieved from http://www.naturalnews.com/008951.html UCLA Health System. (2004). Diabetes on the Rise in Adults and Children. Retrieved from http://www.uclahealth.org/body.cfm?xyzpdqabc=0&id=502&action=detail&ref=229 US Department of Health and Human Services. (2010). Diabetes and Hispanic Americans. Retrieved from http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/content.aspx?ID=3324 Read More