Identifying and addressing the needs of a health center's emerging South Asian patient population: The South Asian Community Outreach Project

Background: Health center clientele may evolve through migration and socioeconomic or demographic shifts. A health center's increasing South Asian clientele prompted the South Asian Community Outreach Project. This immigrant population was expected to have linguistic, cultural, and health care access needs. Anticipated health issues included cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and psychosocial issues. Objective: To identify the needs of the emerging South Asian patient population in a health center's neighborhood and use findings to plan community outreach, education, and intervention. Methods: Literature review was followed by focus groups of local community informants. At two health fairs targeting South Asians in the neighborhood, Health surveys were administered and basic health screening performed. Results: The focus groups provided characteristics of the local South Asian community and recommended strategies and areas of emphasis. Sixty surveys were completed at two health fairs. The majority had health insurance, a regular doctor, and received routine health screening. Behavioral risks included inadequate exercise and overweight. Self-reported rates, compared to US prevalence, was similar for heart disease, higher for hypertension and diabetes, and lower for high cholesterol while health screening found similar rates for high blood pressure, higher for high blood sugar, lower for high cholesterol, and lower for overweight and obesity. Discussion: While the focus groups confirmed health issues identified in the literature, they strongly emphasized social and mental health issues. Unexpectedly, surveys found good access and participation in health care. How findings were used to plan community intervention, lessons learned, and possible generalization will be presented.