Hispanic-American elders. Implications for health-care providers.
American health-care practitioners are faced with a rapidly growing, geriatric, Hispanic-American population. This group shares certain cultural links but is largely heterogeneous and comprised of many subgroups, the largest of which are Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans. Health-care practitioners face significant socioeconomic, cultural, and language barriers in providing care to these patients. An understanding of Hispanic-American social dynamics, an understanding of culture-bound syndromes, and efforts to successfully overcome language barriers are essential to optimal patient care. Exploration of the ethnic complexity of Hispanic-American subgroups will help to free practitioners from medical and racial stereotypes and allow development of cultural insights that can strengthen and enrich the doctor-patient relationship.
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Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology, New Rochelle Hospital Medical Center, New York, USA.
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D014481:United States