Rural Hispanic Populations at Risk in Developing Diabetes: Sociocultural and Familial Challenges in Promoting a Healthy Diet

Abstract

Type II diabetes affects Hispanic populations disproportionately and is the fifth leading cause of death for Hispanic people in the United States (Smith & Barnett, 2005). Risk of diabetes is of great concern throughout the United States and is clearly of epidemic proportions for regions such as the Southwest and Texas where the primary minority populations are Mexican American. We conducted four focus groups with a total of 49 Hispanic participants (23 adults and 26 adolescents) from rural West Texas communities to gain insights about participants' eating habits, knowledge of diabetes, and potential barriers to preventive care. From the data, we identified a three-tiered predisposition or vulnerability to diabetes—heredity; preferences for unhealthy, culturally based food; and temptations from U.S. mainstream fast food culture. These vulnerabilities added to the sociocultural concerns that participants identified—importance of parental and familial modeling; challenges to healthy eating based on a culturally based diet and mainstream fast food culture; and a lack of support from the larger sociocultural networks such as teachers, community leaders, and the media. From these data, we have a better understanding of familial and sociocultural factors that need to be addressed in the development of preventive public awareness and educational plans. We outline implications for practitioners and educators from an integrated cultural biomedical approach.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

An earlier version of this article was presented to the Health Communication Division at Central States Communication Association Conference, Cincinnati, OH, April 2010. A special thank you to Alex Ortiz for his role as the focus group facilitator and for his efforts as a member of the larger research team. The authors would also like to thank Stephen Mitchell for his careful reading of the final draft of this manuscript. Importantly, thank you to focus-group members for their invaluable insights.

Notes

¹We use the label Hispanic, as opposed to Latino, throughout our study in keeping with regional naming preferences and practices for people of Spanish and Latin American descent by Mexican Americans and Anglos within the Texas and West Texas region.

²This larger research initiative was funded through a $50,000 grant from the West Texas Rural EXPORT Center. Research methods for the multimethod initiative consisted of collecting survey data, conducting focus groups, and employing psycho-physiological skin conductance tests. For details about the overall initiative contact the third author, and for all other inquiries on this publication contact the lead author.

³We determined whether a participant was overweight or obese by calculating their body mass index (BMI) from information that they gave to us via a participant information sheet.