| Learning Objective #1: Identify barriers to access of health care for Hispanic populations in rural areas | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Describe the process for creating a community partnership directed at removing and/or lessening these barriers |
Significance: Arkansas ranks first in deaths from cerebrovascular disease and eighth in deaths from heart disease. The worst rankings are in rural areas such as Yell County, the site for the described project. Latinos are the fastest growing population in the United States. In Yell County, the Hispanic population has grown from 1% in 1990 to 44% in 2000. While cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the Hispanic population, research suggests that Hispanics are generally unaware of important lifestyle changes that can prevent the development/progression of cardiovascular disease. Additionally, the Hispanic population in Yell County is subject to numerous barriers to access of health care including poverty, lack of insurance, designation as medically underserved, cultural and language barriers, and lack of Hispanic health care providers.
Purpose: Project planners designed interventions to lessen the impact of these barriers by forming a community partnership between public schools, the local hospital, and a baccalaureate nursing program. The purpose of the project is to increase access to primary care, to offer both school and community based multi-cultural primary prevention programs, to offer consumer health education and screening programs, and to provide case management follow-up to clients presenting abnormal findings.
Outcomes: The following outcomes were achieved: (1) Using a paired t-test, data from a sample of elementary students showed a statistically significant difference in mean scores between the pre-intervention and post-intervention testing. (2) Access to care, measured by number of patients seen and number of clinic visits, increased from 1099 and 1445 respectively for the year prior to implementation of the project to 1443 and 2061 respectively for the first year of the project. This is an increase of 31.4% and 42.7% respectively. (3) Approximately 20 outreach health education/screening programs reaching over 1,200 participants have been conducted in a variety of settings.
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