Well, many of the assumptions made about "Latino Paradox" are questionable IMHO. For example, in the realm of infant health, there is always the claim that Latino babies are less likely to be low birth weight which historically is a marker for infant health. One can challenge that using LBW may not be most optimal. Latino women seems to be more likely to develop gestational diabetes, and thus have larger babies. This of course results in higher birth weight on the average compared to for example African Americans which historically have higher percentage of low birth weight babies (even to term). Is it really a paradox or a fundamental flaw in our assumptions and hypotheses?
>>> Dennis Raphael <[log in to unmask]> 04/04/08 6:50 AM >>>
http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-causes4apr04,0,423874.story
...According to this series, co-produced by the San Francisco-based
California Newsreel and Boston's Vital Pictures, it's not just the lack of
general access to medical care that has increased the rate of "excess
death" among the poor and marginalized: American culture is in itself
toxic. Even the rule-proving-exception "Latino Paradox" -- recent
immigrants from Latin America not only test healthier than groups of
similar income but also surpass affluent whites -- fades with time and
exposure to the local diet and way of life.
While the series doesn't exactly call for revolution -- a not unreasonable
response to the facts as it presents them -- it does make clear that only
political will can provide a remedy, and does suggest that the answer is
to take from the rich to help the poor, and to lessen the overall cost to
society.
"Economic policy is health policy" says Harvard sociologist David
Williams. "Everyone benefits if no one is left behind," says the series
narrator.
Four hours seems longer than was needed to make this point -- some
identical information recurs from episode to episode -- and spreading it
across a month is possibly not a favor to its audience. (I would expect
some dropping off over its course.)
Then again, there are things you can't repeat too often.
[log in to unmask]
-----------------------------------------------
Of related interest:
Poverty and Policy in Canada: Implications for Health and Quality of Life
by Dennis Raphael
Foreword by Jack Layton
http://tinyurl.com/2hg2df
Staying Alive: Critical Perspectives on Health, Illness, and Health Care,
edited by Dennis Raphael, Toba Bryant, and Marcia Rioux
Foreword by Gary Teeple
http://tinyurl.com/2zqrox
Social Determinants of Health: Canadian Perspectives, edited by Dennis
Raphael
Foreword by Roy Romanow
http://tinyurl.com/yptzae
See a lecture! The Politics of Population Health
http://msl.stream.yorku.ca/mediasite/viewer/?peid=ac604170-9ccc-4268-a1af-9a9e04b28e1d
Also, presentation on Politics and Health at the Centre for Health
Disparities in Cleveland Ohio
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4129139685624192201&hl=en
Dennis Raphael, PhD
Professor and Undergraduate Program Director
School of Health Policy and Management
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto ON M3J 1P3
416-736-2100, ext. 22134
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.atkinson.yorku.ca/draphael
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