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Report: Most Latinos Get Medical Advice From Media

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Aug 13, 2008 9:16 am US/Pacific

Report: Most Latinos Get Medical Advice From Media

LOS ANGELES

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Of most concern to some doctors are Spanish-language television and radio ads promising miracle cures for everything from weight loss to male impotency and cancer.

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More Latinos turn to television and radio for health information rather than consult a doctor, raising concerns for a population expected to double by 2050, it was reported Wednesday.

The report by the Pew Hispanic Center also found that half of high school-educated Latinos don't seek regular medical care and that more American-born Latinos use folk medicine than Latinos living here who were born outside the United States, the Daily News reported.

Of most concern to some doctors are Spanish-language television and radio ads promising miracle cures for everything from weight loss to male impotency and cancer. The fact that so many Latinos rely on broadcast media for health news is both good and bad, Dr. Glenn Lopez, an assistant professor in UCLA's Department of Family Medicine, told the Daily News.

"I believe there is less control in truth in advertising in the Spanish media than the English media, because I've seen these outrageous claims being made about vitamins and other products," said Lopez, who studies community health issues in Sun Valley.

"But I am actually very impressed with the Spanish (language) media in terms of their news coverage. They have a built-in commitment to getting out a lot of information on health issues, especially with diabetes."

The Pew study was based on surveys of more than 4,000 Latino adults nationwide.

"When it comes to Latinos, what may appear to be the well-known effects of socioeconomic inequality on health care may also be conditioned by unique social, cultural and economic circumstances confronting both Hispanic immigrants and Hispanics born in the United States," the report's authors wrote, according to the Daily News.