Reporter Volume 26, No.9 November 3, 1994

By LOIS BAKER
News Bureau Staff
Residents of Buffalo's low income, largely Hispanic Lower West Side
are twice as sick as the U.S. population living in poverty, and face
major barriers to receiving adequate health care, results of a
comprehensive health survey conducted by the UB Center for Urban
Research in Primary Care has revealed.
	The study provides one of the few available pictures of the
health status of a pocket of the urban poor in general, and of an
urban Puerto Rican population in particular. Details were released to
the public Oct. 26.
	"Very few scientific studies on local urban health needs have
been conducted because you can't find funding," said Carlos Roberto Ja
n, study project director and UB assistant professor of family
medicine and social and preventive medicine. "Agencies want to fund
actions, interventions, not studies to define the problems."
	Also lending relevance to the findings is the fact that the
study is one of the first involving Puerto Ricans, which account for
three-fourths of Buffalo's Hispanics and comprise the major portion of
Hispanic populations in Northeastern cities in general.
	"Most existing studies of Hispanics have been done with
Mexican-Americans in the South West and West," said Ja
n. "Our findings are applicable to any urban Puerto Rican population,
and highlight the importance of having information from specific
cities so we can know the extent of the problems."
	 Demographics from the survey show the population to be 54
percent HispanicQthree-quarters of whom were Puerto Rican-born, 29
percent non-Hispanic white and 17 percent African American. The number
of men and women are nearly equal. Seventy percent are under the age
of 40.
	Smoking, alcohol consumption, asthma and diabetes are major
problems in this population in which conventional written health
information isn't particularly useful because more than a third of the
residents did not complete high school. And when members of the
Hispanic population go to a hospital or doctor's office, as many as 40
percent can't communicate with the English-speaking staff and
physicians, the study showed.
	The results also indicate that, contrary to early assumptions,
most residents of this low-income neighborhood have a place to go for
health care and most are covered by some type of health insurance.
	Bilingual interviewers went door-to-door from January-April
1994, contacting every seventh house in five census tracts. They
completed interviews at 826 households, representing 1,873
individuals, for a response rate of about 78 percent.
	The study report homes in on findings that Ja
n says have a major impact on the health status of this population:
	o One out of four Hispanic adults, or 25 percent, has less
than an eighth-grade education and 50 percent did not finish high
school. The figures for African Americans are 13 percent, and 41
percent; for non-Hispanic whites, 12 percent and 26 percent.
 	o 41 percent of Hispanic respondents report their health
status as fair or poor, a generally accepted indicator of illness. The
number of people living in poverty nationally who rate their health
status as fair or poor is 20 percent, Ja
n said In this study, 28 percent of African-Americans and 23 percent
of non-Hispanic whites considered themselves to be in fair or poor
health.
	o 15 percent of Hispanics, 14 percent of African Americans and
7 percent of non-Hispanic whites have been diagnosed with asthma.
	o One of five Hispanic or African American residents 40 years
or older has diabetes.
	o 47 percent of the men reported drinking alcohol, with 52
percent of male drinkers considering themselves problem drinkers or
alcoholics. Only 28 percent of the women drank alcohol, but within
that group, 15 percent reported themselves to be problem drinkers or
alcoholics.
	o 47 percent of men and 33 percent of women 18 years old or
above are cigarette smokers. The national average is 26 percent.
	The survey also reveals unrealistic attitudes concerning the
dangers of AIDS. Sixty-five percent of the respondents said they have
no chance of getting AIDS, yet 39 percent said they have a friend or
relative with the disease. A third of the respondents did not think
condoms are useful in protecting against AIDS.
	The study, which includes data on many additional health
issues, was funded by the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation, a private
Buffalo-based organization.