Eliminating oral health disparities in the Hispanic population
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Hispanic population is forecast to grow 43% by 2020 (vs. 14% for the general population). Along with this growth will come a need for increased oral health services and education, coupled with an effort to address significant oral health disparities in this population.
One of the DentaQuest Foundation’s newly-updated Oral Health 2020 goals is that by 2020, 85% of children will reach age five without having a cavity. According to recently released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 77% of children today reach this critical milestone. However, that success is not evenly distributed across racial and ethnic groups. In fact, according to the CDC, one of the greatest racial and ethnic oral health disparities among children ages 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 is seen in Mexican-American children. Furthermore, when it comes to the adult population, the overall Hispanicpopulation experiences poorer oral health when compared to other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. Since oral health is a crucial part of overall health, this has broad implications.
Through the years, the DentaQuest Foundation has provided funding to support partners who are working to address oral health disparities and promote greater health literacy. The Vista Community Clinic in San Diego developed a migrant health and community engagement program that helped more than 5,700 families overcome the cultural and linguistic barriers blocking them from accessing health and dental care. In Rhode Island, Teeth First!, an oral health advocacy organization, produced bilingual oral health literacy materials both in print and online to educate families and caregivers of young children about the importance of home care and early childhood dental visits.
Yet connecting effectively with the Hispanic community goes beyond speaking Spanish and making bilingual literature available. It’s important to understand the cultural, environmental, behavioral, and other factors that create health disparities and bar groups from receiving oral health care. UCSF’s Center to Address Disparities in Children’s Oral Health is a good example of an organization that’s working to eliminate these disparities by helping health professionals understand and address these factors. It’s equally helpful to build collaborations with programs and entities that are already working within the community.
For example, migrant families have the tendency to think of themselves as “one unit,” and sometimes they do not access available health care programs because they assume that if one member does not qualify to receive health care, neither does the rest of the family. Alternately, from the health care point of view, thinking of the Hispanic family as “one unit” doesn’t always apply to migrant families, as it is common for these families to be mixed and have members who are U.S. citizens, U.S. residents, or have pending legal status. Therefore, different health programs could be available to different family members, and providers and outreach programs should take this into account in their approaches.
In Texas, Manos Unidas (United Hands) coordinates The Binational Health Fair, which is the largest health mobilization in the Americas celebrated in three countries: Mexico, U.S., and Canada. This initiative directly targets migrant families. The families feel at ease and welcome because this health fair is jointly hosted by the Consulate of Mexico and local health-care providers who are knowledgeable about the community’s barriers. This past October, more than 6,000 families attended the Binational Health Fair in Dallas, Texas. Information about oral health was one of the most sought after medical services.
We must address the collective disparities that impact the Hispanic and other communities, and it is also important to be mindful of the uniqueness of each Hispanic family. Capacity building and cultural knowledge training will help build trust and relationships with these families so they feel secure about disclosing sensitive health information about family members and taking the steps to seek care. Doing so will help us reach our goal for 2020.
Ralph Fuccillo is the president of the DentaQuest Foundation, the leading U.S. philanthropy focused solely on oral health. The foundation supports the development of the Oral Health 2020 network, a group of partners committed to working at the national, state, and community levels to eradicate dental disease in children and improve lifelong oral health. The DentaQuest Foundation is the philanthropic arm of DentaQuest. To learn more, visit dentaquestfoundation.org, or follow them on Twitter, @OralHealth2020. Reach Ralph at [email protected].
Edgar Carmona is the Associate Executive Director of A.I.N., a non-profit organization in North Texas that will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2016. He oversees A.I.N.’s Hispanic Health Initiative, "Manos Unidas," which maintains a network of partners composed of universities, hospitals, community clinics, and other non-profits to reduce health care gaps in the Hispanic community of North Texas, impacting around 250,000 families yearly. Edgar coordinates The Binational Health Week and the Ventanilla de Salud Program in conjunction with the Ministry of Health of Mexico. He was named a 2015 DentaQuest Health Equity Hero. Reach him at [email protected].
