Posts Tagged: Latino
Fatty liver disease strikes Latino children like a ‘silent tsunami’
Saira Diaz uses her fingers to count the establishments selling fast food and sweets near the South Los Angeles home she shares with her parents and 13-year-old son. “There's one, two, three, four, five fast-food restaurants,” she says. “And a little mom and pop store that sells snacks and sodas and candy.”
In that low-income, predominantly Latino neighborhood, it's pretty hard for a kid to avoid sugar. Last year, doctors at St. John's Well Child and Family Center, a nonprofit community clinic seven blocks away, became alarmed by the rising weight of Diaz's son, Adrian Mejia. They persuaded him to join an intervention study run by the University of Southern California and Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) that weans participants off sugar in an effort to reduce the rate of obesity and diabetes among children.
It also targets a third condition fewer people have heard of: fatty liver disease.
Linked both to genetics and diets high in sugar and fat, “fatty liver disease is ripping through the Latino community like a silent tsunami and especially affecting children,” said Dr. Rohit Kohli, chief of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at CHLA.
Recent research shows about 1 in 4 people in the U.S. have fatty liver disease. But among Latinos, especially of Mexican and Central American descent, the rate is significantly higher. One large study in Dallas foThe USC-CHLA study is led by Michael Goran, director of the Diabetes and Obesity Program at CHLA, who last year made an alarming discovery: Sugar from sweetened beverages can be passed in breast milk from mothers to their babies, potentially predisposing infants to obesity and fatty livers.
Called HEROES, for Healthy Eating Through Reduction of Excess Sugar, his program is designed to help children like Adrian, who used to drink four or more sugary drinks a day, shed unhealthy habits that can lead to fatty liver and other diseases.
Fatty liver disease is gaining more attention in the medical community as lawmakers ratchet up pressure to discourage the consumption of sugar-laden drinks. Legislators in Sacramento are mulling proposals to impose a statewide soda tax, put warning labels on sugary drinks and bar beverage companies from offering discount coupons on sweetened drinks.
“I support sugar taxes and warning labels as a way to discourage consumption, but I don't think that alone will do the trick,” Goran said. “We also need public health strategies that limit marketing of sugary beverages, snacks and cereals to infants and children.”
William Dermody, a spokesman for the American Beverage Association said: “We understand that we have a role to play in helping Americans manage consumption of added sugars, which is why we are creating more drinks with less or no sugar.”
In 2016, 45 deaths in Los Angeles County were attributed to fatty liver disease. But that's a “gross underestimate,” because by the time people with the illness die, they often have cirrhosis, and that's what appears on the death certificate, said Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer at the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
Still, Simon said, it was striking that 53% of the 2016 deaths attributed to fatty liver disease were among Latinos — nearly double their proportion of total deaths in the county.
Medical researchers consider fatty liver disease a manifestation of something called metabolic syndrome — a cluster of conditions that include excess belly fat and elevated blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol that can increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
Until 2006, few doctors knew that children could get fatty liver disease. That year Dr. Jeffrey Schwimmer, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California-San Diego, reviewed the autopsies of 742 children and teenagers, ages 2 to 19, who had died in car crashes or from other causes, and he found that 13% of them had fatty liver disease. Among obese kids, 38% had fatty livers.
After Schwimmer's study was released, Goran began using MRIs to diagnose fatty liver in living children.
A 2008 study by another group of researchers nudged Goran further. It showed that a variant of a gene called PNPLA3 significantly increased the risk of the disease. About half of Latinos have one copy of that high-risk gene, and a quarter have two copies, according to Goran.
He began a new study, which showed that among children as young as 8, those who had two copies of the risky gene and consumed high amounts of sugar had three times as much fat in their livers as kids with no copy of the gene. Now, in the USC-CHLA study, he is testing whether reduced consumption of sugar decreases the fatty liver risk in children who have the PNPLA3 gene variant.
At the start of the study, he tests kids to see if they have the PNPLA3 gene, uses an MRI to measure their liver fat and catalogs their sugar intake. A dietitian on his team educates the family about the impact of sugar. Then, after four months, they measure liver fat again to assess the impact of the intervention. Goran expects to have results from the study in about a year.
More recently, Goran has been investigating the transmission of sugar from mothers to their babies. He showed last year that in nursing mothers who drank beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup — the primary sweetener in standard formulations of Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other sodas — the fructose level in their breast milk rose and stayed elevated for several hours, ensuring that the baby ingested it.
This early exposure to sugar could be contributing to obesity, diabetes and fatty livers, based on previous research that showed fructose can enhance the fat storage capacity of cells, Goran said.
In neighborhoods like South Los Angeles, where Saira Diaz and Adrian Mejia live, a lack of full-service markets and fresh produce makes it harder to eat healthily. “Access to unhealthy food options — which are usually cheaper — is very high in this city,” Derek Steele, director of health equity programs at the Social Justice Learning Institute in Inglewood, Calif., told Kaiser Health News.
The institute has started farmers markets, helped convert two corner stores into markets with healthier food options and created 109 community gardens on public and private lands in South L.A. and neighboring Inglewood, which has 125 liquor and convenience stores and 150 fast-food outlets.
At Torrance Memorial Medical Center, 10 miles down the road, Dr. Karl Fukunaga, a gastroenterologist with Digestive Care Consultants, said he and his colleagues are seeing so many patients with fatty liver disease that they plan to start a clinic to address it. He urges his patients to avoid sugar and cut down on carbohydrates.
Adrian Mejia and his mother received similar advice from a dietitian in the HEROES program. Adrian gave up sugary beverages, and his liver fat dropped 43%. Two months ago, he joined a soccer league.
“Before, I weighed a lot and it was hard to run,” he said. “If I kept going at the pace I was going, probably later in my life I would be like my [diabetic] grandma. I don't want that to happen.”
This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.
Source: Published originally on USAToday.com, Fatty liver disease strikes Latino children like a ‘silent tsunami', by Rob Waters, Kaiser Health News, April 19th , 2019.
The importance of counting Latinos in the 2020 Census
No phrase better defines the American experience than the clear directive: No taxation without representation. With one set of words, a nation's value system is captured and guided into the future, giving every single resident a voice.
You'd think we would do everything in our power to protect and preserve that which makes just representation possible — like making sure the decennial census count is accurate, right?
Let's take a moment to look at lessons learned. When the British Parliament ruled this land and passed a series of taxes on stamps and sugar without consent, this phrase became the rallying call among colonists demanding fair political representation. Give us a seat at the table or forfeit your right to govern, it declared.
We know what happened next. The movement led to a series of acts of resistance — from the Boston Tea Party to the First Continental Congress — and eventually transformed into the American Revolution, giving birth to the representative democracy we see today.
Yet here we are, 243 years later, with the United States of America bordering on reneging that sacrosanct American guarantee with an undercount of Latinos in the 2020 Census.
The U.S. Census is designed to count all residents regardless of where they live or how many people are in a given household. From that count, seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are apportioned to the states, and critical federal dollars are allocated for schools, hospitals and roads.
Clearly, the numbers matter, especially in California where billions of federal monies could be lost due to an inaccurate tally. In a state where Latinos make up nearly 40 percent of the population and contribute to its thriving economy, we need to get this right or the 2020 Census could shape up to be one of the most disastrous threats to our democracy since our founding.
A series of factors could be credited with a potential undercount. To start, this will be the first census to move online. An online census sounds ideal for reduced costs, but considering that only 54 percent of Latinos in California access the internet through broadband, compared to 69 percent of all Californians, this move will prove difficult for counting the Latino population.
The Trump administration's attempt to add a citizenship question to the census was dealt a legal blow this month when a U.S. district judge ruled adding such a question violates federal statute. But since the administration promises not to quit the threat to add the question, the mistrust that officials are breeding stands to scare immigrant and Latino communities from participating, which could lead to an even greater undercount of these populations and prevent states from their rightful share of representatives in the U.S. House.
This hits home hard in California, where more than 15 million Latinos work and live, including close to 3 million undocumented immigrants. Since California is the most populous state in the union, constitutionally speaking, it should also possess the maximum share of political representatives at the federal level. Because Latinos and immigrants were counted in the 2010 Census, California obtained the most number of members in the U.S. House at 53.
This seems like a big number, but even 10 years ago Latinos were undercounted, including more than 100,000 Latino children ages 0-4.
The Latino Community Foundation, a statewide foundation in California focused on unleashing the political power of Latinos, continues to call for a fair and accurate count of Latinos, and planning ways with like-minded groups to do so. LCF began in early 2018 to actively engage Latinos up and down the state with a roadmap to prepare for the 2020 Census.
California is also stepping up, issuing an application for community-based organizations to help conduct critical education and outreach for getting the census count right. Organizations must apply by Feb. 15 to be considered for dollars that both former Gov. Jerry Brown and current Gov. Gavin Newsom budgeted to achieve a successful count.
There is still hope in achieving a complete count, but time is getting tight. It's on us, the 57 million Latinos who live in this country and who are yearning to be politically represented.
Like our founding fathers who said that a true representative democracy derives from the will, and the taxes, of the people, it's time to view counting in the census as an act of resistance. For to resist, we must exist. The census is the mechanism to make sure all voices are represented.
Christian Arana is policy director with the Latino Community Foundation in San Francisco.
Source: Published originally on FresnoBee.com, The importance of counting Latinos in the 2020 Census, by Christian Arana , January 30, 2019.
Latinos Facing Deeper Retirement Security Crisis Than Other Ethnic Groups
Latinos are facing a deeper retirement crisis than other ethnic groups because of lower access to workplace savings plans and other job-related disadvantages in accumulating nest eggs, reports the National Institute on Retirement Security and UnidosUS in a new study.
“Retirement plan participation rate for Latino workers (30.9 percent) is about 22.1 percentage points lower than participation rate of White workers (53% percent), because Latinos face higher access and eligibility hurdles,” the researchers from NIRS and UnidosUS find. Unidos was formerly known as the National Council of La Raza.
In 2014, 53.7 percent of Latinos 21 to 65 who worked for an employer that sponsored a retirement plan compared to 69.8 percent of all workers.
Even when they are working for an employer with a workplace retirement savings plan, Latinos are hurt because they frequently don't meet the eligibility requirements.
Among Latinos with access to a retirement plan, only 60.3 percent satisfy the eligibility requirements versus 72.9 percent for all workers with access.
At the same time, Latino employees who are in workplace retirement plans have about one-third less savings on average than their White workers.
The study warns Latino women are particularly hard hit economically when they reach age 65.
“Without income from work, Latinas age 65 and older would not be able to afford basic expenses. Older Latinas also face poverty rates three times higher than older White women,” the study says.
Smaller than national average incomes also harm Latinos in preparing for their post-workforce future.
“Workers earning low wages and struggling to make ends meet may very well find it difficult to set aside a portion of their income to save for retirement,” the report warns.
The study points out Latinos typically get a late start in saving for retirement.
The majority of Latinos who have access to a workplace retirement plan don't achieve the benefit until age 45.
By 2060, the number of Latinos 65 and over in the U.S. is expected to reach 21.5 million.
Currently, at 57.5 people, Latinos make up 17.8 percent of the nation's population.
Source: Published originally on forbes.com, Latinos Facing Deeper Retirement Security Crisis Than Other Ethnic Groups, by Ted Knutson, December 3rd, 2018.
Study Suggests Risk of Cancer Death Increases with Each Generation of Latinos Born in the United States
The study's findings show that the highest cancer death rate occurred among third-generation U.S.-born Latinos, followed by second-generation Latinos with one or both parents born in Mexico. The lowest cancer death rate occurred among first-generation immigrants. The study also found the risk of dying from certain cancers, including lung, colorectal, and liver cancers, was significantly higher among third-generation U.S.-born Latinos compared with first-generation Mexico-born immigrants.
Key Points
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The study was presented at the 11th AACR Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved (Abstract C084).
The researchers analyzed data from 29,308 Latinos of Mexican origin participating in the Multiethnic Cohort Study of Diet and Cancer funded by the National Cancer Institute. The participants were between the ages of 45 and 74 years, and they entered the study between 1993 and 1996. Cox models were used to estimate the relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for cancer mortality associated with generation, adjusted for risk factors for cancer mortality, at cohort baseline.
Study Results
During an average of 17.7 years, 2,915 cancer deaths were identified. The researchers found that the highest death rate (per 100,000) occurred among third-generation U.S.-born Latinos (age-adjusted rate = 537); followed by second-generation Latinos with one parent born in the United States (526 per 100,000) or both parents born in Mexico (481 per 100,000). The lowest cancer death rate occurred among first-generation immigrants (381 per 100,000).
After adjusting for education, lifestyle factors, and preexisting illnesses, Latino generation was associated with cancer mortality risk (P trend < .0001). The risk for third-generation U.S.-born, second-generation with one parent U.S.-born, and second-generation with both parents Mexico-born was significantly higher compared to first-generation immigrants (RR = 1.37 [95% CI = 1.21–1.54], 1.27 [1.12-1.44], and 1.20 [1.08-1.33], respectively). Restricting analyses to the Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC)-Medicare enrollees, for whom data indicated they are living in the United States and are eligible for national health insurance coverage, yielded similar results.
In specific cancer site analyses, the researchers found associations between generation with lung cancer (P trend = .014), colorectal cancer (P trend = .004), liver cancer (P trend = .006), and possibly breast cancer (P trend = .053). The risks of lung cancer (RR = 1.46 [1.09-1.97]), colorectal cancer (RR = 1.95 [1.28–2.95]), and liver cancer (RR = 1.87 [1.22–2.85]) deaths were significantly higher among third-generation U.S.-born compared to first-generation Mexico-born immigrants.
The risks of prostate, stomach, and pancreatic cancers were similar across generations.
Changing Risk Factors
“The disparities in cancer mortality we observed in U.S. Latinos are likely due to changes in lifestyle, health behaviors, and social factors,” said Veronica Wendy Setiawan, PhD, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and lead author of this study, in a statement. “This study is a reminder that some factors that contribute to cancer risk are modifiable.”
Dr. Setiawan declared no conflicts of interest. Funding for the study was provided by the National Cancer Institute.
The content in this post has not been reviewed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc. (ASCO®) and does not necessarily reflect the ideas and opinions of ASCO®.
Source: Published originally on ascopost.com, Study Suggests Risk of Cancer Death Increases with Each Generation of Latinos Born in the United States, by Jo Cavallo, November 5th, 2018.
UnidosUS and UC Davis Examine Strength of the Latino Vote
During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the number of Latino voters increased 13 percent over 2012, reaching a record high of nearly 13 million. Latinos are now poised to affect key districts in the midterm elections. However, it will require successful mobilization and investment efforts in order to harness the full strength of the Latino electorate, said the study's author, Mindy Romero, of the California Civic Engagement Project, or CCEP.
The CCEP and UnidosUS will be presenting their latest research at a press briefing, “Latino Tipping Point: How Latinos Are Poised to Impact Key Districts in the Midterm Elections,” Wednesday, June 20, 10 a.m. EDT, at the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, Washington DC, 20045. Romero, CCEP founder and director, and Clarissa Martinez de Castro, deputy vice president, UnidosUS, will present the findings.
During the briefing, representatives from UnidosUS and UC Davis will reveal key research findings, including a profile of the Latino voter and predictions of competitive districts where the Latino electorate can have a strong showing at the ballot box. Study findings are based on an analysis of American Community Survey and Catalist voter data.
Strength of the Latino vote
Some highlights from the research on the vote include:
- Latinos currently make up 17.8 percent of the nation's total population at 57.4 million
- 60 percent of the Latino population are under age 35, making Latinos the youngest major ethnic or racial group in the country
- Latino voters still experience electoral underrepresentation and need to be mobilized to not only register to vote but also vote
- The Latino share of the U.S. vote will grow significantly over the next few decades
Source: Published originally on UC Davis News, UnidosUS and UC Davis Examine Strength of the Latino Vote , by Karen Nikos-Rose on June 18, 2018.