Non-Latinx Healthcare Provider’s Knowledge and Awareness of Latinx Geriatric Clinical Health Needs

ABSTRACT

Objectives

Due to the exponential growth in the Latinx older adult population, culturally responsive services are needed, especially since most healthcare providers are non-Latinx with limited Spanish or bilingual skills. One place to start is by drawing a formative assessment of the healthcare providers’ knowledge and awareness of the healthcare needs of Latinx older adults.

Methods

Focus groups were conducted to explore the healthcare providers’ knowledge and awareness of cultural and structural barriers and facilitators to accessing health care services for Latinx older adults.

Results

Results note that healthcare providers perceived the healthcare needs for Latinx older adults to be underutilized for healthcare services, preventive interventions for healthy diet/lifestyle, and healthcare knowledge. Providers reported Latinx family over-involvement, religiosity, immigration, and language/lack of interpreters as barriers to seeking timely healthcare. Finally, healthcare providers said that family support, the location of healthcare services, and community-based partnerships were all facilitators for seeking healthcare.

Conclusions

Findings suggest providers’ conflicting perspectives toward the Latinx communities.

Clinical Implications

Healthcare services can consider implementing trainings for non-Latinx providers to recognize conflicting perspectives and reduce implicit bias toward the Latinx communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Provider perceptions
• older adults
• health disparities
• healthcare disparities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. “Hispanic” and “Latina/o” are used interchangeably to refer to Latin Americans and/or individuals who speak Spanish. In efforts to include gender-expansive and Afro-Latinx communities, the author will use “Latinx” in lieu of “Hispanic” and “Latina/o” to describe the sample/population. See Cardemil et al. (2019) for more information.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing’s Intramural Grants Program.