Abstract

Background

The Boston Puerto Rican Health Study is an ongoing longitudinal cohort study designed to examine the role of psychosocial stress on presence and development of allostatic load and health outcomes in Puerto Ricans, and potential modification by nutritional status, genetic variation, and social support.

Methods

Self-identified Puerto Ricans, aged 45-75 years and residing in the Boston, MA metro area, were recruited through door-to-door enumeration and community approaches. Participants completed a comprehensive set of questionnaires and tests. Blood, urine and salivary samples were extracted for biomarker and genetic analysis. Measurements are repeated at a two-year follow-up.

Results

A total of 1500 eligible participants completed baseline measurements, with nearly 80% two-year follow-up retention. The majority of the cohort is female (70%), and many have less than 8th grade education (48%), and fall below the poverty level (59%). Baseline prevalence of health conditions is high for this age range: considerable physical (26%) and cognitive (7%) impairment, obesity (57%), type 2 diabetes (40%), hypertension (69%), arthritis (50%) and depressive symptomatology (60%).

Conclusions

The enrollment of minority groups presents unique challenges. This report highlights approaches to working with difficult to reach populations, and describes some of the health issues and needs of Puerto Rican older adults. These results may inform future studies and interventions aiming to improve the health of this and similar communities.

Notes

Originally published in BMC Public Health 2010,10:107. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-10-107

Keywords

Puerto Ricans, health disparities, longitudinal study

Subject Categories

Puerto Ricans - United States - Health and hygiene, Puerto Ricans - United States - Diseases

Disciplines

Community Health and Preventive Medicine

Publisher

BioMedCentral

Publication Date

3-1-2010

Rights Information

© 2010 Tucker, et al

Restrictions

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Rights Holder

Tucker, et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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Detailed Methodology for the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study

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Detailed Methodology for the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study

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