Community involvement in assessing health needs of immigrant salvadoreans living in Washington, D.C. area

Although Salvadoreans are the fourth largest group of Hispanics in the United States, little data exist on their sociodemographic profile, health beliefs and behaviors. Community participation and a planned approach to community health promotion were used to design and implement a survey on a Salvadorean population. A workshop was held to: (1) discern the health needs and access to health care among Salvadoreans residing in the District of Columbia Metropolitan Area (DCMA); and, (2) gain the trust of Salvadorean community leaders. The conclusions from the workshop were: a great majority of Hispanics are immigrants from El Salvador who lack basic knowledge about diseases and tend to have simplistic views; and, these immigrants' beliefs, attitudes and behaviors toward diseases have likely been shaped by their cultural heritage. Salvadoreans are, as a group, at risk for health and social problems because they have abandoned their country in the midst of a civil war. However, no data were available to support the identified problems. With the cooperation of the community leaders, a survey to assess the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors toward general health, access to health care and its utilization, and other sociodemographic information was conducted among Salvador-born adults who reside in the DCMA. The sample size was 1,549, with a refusal rate of 2 percent. Women's perceptions of their communities' health problems were significantly (p=.001) different from those of males. As compared to men, women were more likely to have had a recent medical consult or a routine checkup. In assessing their own health, half the men rated their health as very good or excellent; whereas more than 60 percent of the women rated their health as poor or very poor. Findings from this study will provide valuable data to design educational programs, including disease prevention strategies, for immigrant Salvadoreans.