Central Florida Organization To Fight ‘Overwhelming’ Diabetes Rates Among Hispanics

To address a diabetes rate among Hispanics that is double the rate among non-Hispanic whites in the same age group, the Florida-based outreach agency Hispanic Health Initiatives will use a $57,000 grant to start a healthy eating and exercise program this November, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The population of Osceola County, Fla., is nearly 30% Hispanic and is among the 12 counties statewide with the highest death rates from diabetes. In central Florida, almost 7,000 of the approximately 20,000 Hispanics who have diabetes are unaware that they have the disease, the Sentinel reports. Josephine Mercado, president of Hispanic Health Initiatives, said the group's program aims to "make a small dent in the overwhelming" diabetes rates among central Florida Hispanics. Using the grant from the Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida -- the charitable arm of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida -- Hispanic Health Initiatives will begin pairing diabetics in Osceola, Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties with a partner who will help them follow a regimented diet and exercise routine. Participants will meet once a week for the first 10 weeks and then monthly for a year to monitor their progress. The program will commence with a community health fair, conducted in Spanish, that will include a panel of health care professionals and state health officials who will address the participants and educate them about the "rampant" Hispanic diabetes rate. "We need to educate Hispanics about their diet," Enrique Segarra, a Hispanic Orlando, Fla., pharmacist who has diabetes, said, adding, "Eating well can prevent a lot of other diseases, not just diabetes." Hispanic Health Initiatives' previous efforts to combat racial health disparities have been successful; the group's early breast cancer detection initiative earlier this year "surpassed the expectations" of the state Health Department, the Sentinel reports (Brewington, Orlando Sentinel, 8/20).