Worcester Business Journal

14 Worcester Business Journal | April 15, 2019 | wbjournal.com F O C U S H E A L T H C A R E BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor As Central Mass. becomes more racially diverse, the health needs of the population are shiing Diverse challenges D r. Alvaro Alonso was completing his residency at Tus Medical Center in Boston when he and his colleagues spotted something peculiar. Alonso, now a cardiologist at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, noticed how many people from the surrounding Chinatown neighborhood would come in complaining of dizzi- ness. It became infamous among staff. ere was a reason, and it had noth- ing to do with their physical ailments. ose Asian patients had no word for dizziness in their native language and were trying to say they were feeling ill, Alonso said. Only later did doctors discover the misunderstanding. Alonso's story is one of many illus- trating how providing health care has become more complicated with a more diverse population. Challenges with language barriers are only a part of it. As the population in and around Worcester has diversified in recent decades, health care has changed with it. New ethnic and racial groups have var- ious health needs, with the differences caused by still largely unknown factors. Addressing cultural needs & stigmas A few generations ago, the city was overwhelmingly white. Immigrants came from places like Ireland, Canada and Britain. ese days, the city's largest immigrant populations are from Brazil, Vietnam, Ghana and the Dominican Republic, according to U.S. Census data. Roughly a quarter of the city's popula- tion is foreign-born. Some of those areas of the world carry higher rates for certain conditions. South Asians have a diabetes rate four times higher than Caucasians, for exam- ple, according to a study last year by the University of California Irvine. "It's well established that certain groups have a higher incidence of car- diovascular disease," Alonso said. A larger African population, par- ticularly West Africa, has brought to the Worcester area men with a much higher prevalence of prostate cancer, said Dr. Mitchell Sokoloff, a urologist at UMass Memorial Medical Center. "It's a major health disparity issue in the Worcester area," Sokoloff said. Hereditary factors aren't the only concern for doctors. Other cultures can have different views of preventative care. African men, for instance, are particularly Rates among races nationally High blood pressure Source: American College of Cardiology (2018) Rates among races nationally Type 2 diabetes Source: American Diabetes Association (2019) Black White Hispanic Asian 41.2% 28% 25% 25% South Asian African American Hispanic Chinese American Caucasian 20.5% 16.5% 15.7% 10.2% 5.8% Dr. Alvaro Alonso, a cardiologist at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester and a native of Mexico, said he's learned of genetic and cultural differences among patient groups before treating them. Such considerations have become more important as the Worcester area has diversified.

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