Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Socioeconomic Status and Prevalence of Obesity and Diabetes in a Mexican American Community, Cameron County, Texas, 2004-2007

In recent years there has been an increase of diabetes cases, not only in the older population but varies from young adults and children to elders. One of the leading factors for this large increase of diabetes cases is the increase in poverty among minority groups. Finding a group within US boarders, a group of people were chosen to partake in an experiment to determine the increase of obesity and diabetes within the community. The selected population consisted of 310 people from ages ranging from 35 and 64 years old. More specific, the goal of the experiment was to look at the socioeconomic statuses within Mexican American communities to determine whether or not it played a role in their health. GIS was then incorporated to illustrate "the spatial distribution of households by income quartile and the density of sampling." Using longitude and latitude coordinates to geocode the location of the households were revised for accuracy and later layouts were created through ArcMap. Overall the conclusion was made that due to low socioeconomic income Mexican American families along the borders had higher populations of children with diabetes. Due to the lack of insurance and or lack of money, there is a large percentage of children who go undiagnosed along with the overall factor of being in risk of developing the disease somewhere along their futures. 


The graph is a representation on the part of the research focused on the percentage of participants who tested positive for diabetes. Considering Cameron County Hispanic Cohort from 2004 to 2007, the information is categorized through ages and by socioeconomic status. The first quartile consisted of participants with an income of < $17,830, and people in the third quartile whose incomes ranged from $24,067-$31,747. 


-Hoch, F., & P, S. (2010). Socioeconomic Status and Prevalence of Obesity and Diabetes in a Mexican American Community, Cameron County, Texas, 2004-2007. Preventing Chronic Disease: Public Health Research, Practice and Policy, 7(3), A53-A53.

3 comments:

  1. Are you saying that everyone who was chosen to take that survey represents the entire us population who suffer from diabetes.

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  2. People who have higher income has lower percentage of obesity and diabetes. The use of GIS can show both the income level of people and the health problem of people which is highly influenced by the income.

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  3. In this study, GIS was used to determine factors leading to an increase in diabetes rates amongst Americans. GIS was utilized to map the income distribution amongst certain household areas. One can conclude from the study that socioeconomic status is a large factor in contributing to diabetes.

    ReplyDelete