Take care, all’s not fair with South Asian hearts

SOUTH Asian living in the US are more prone to heart disease, blood pressure and diabetes, a recent health fair for the community has indicated.

As many as 400 of the 3,000 South Asians, who came to attend the second annual South Asian Health Fair at Jackson Heights, were detected to be at elevated risk for heart disease.

This is in confirmation of the previous studies for health status of South Asians, Sapna Pandya, of South Asian Health Initiative (SAHI) of NYU School of Medicine, told The Indian Express.

Said to be the largest annual health fair for the South Asian community in this area, the event was sponsored by SAHI, Center for Immigrant Health, NYU School of Medicine, MHRAMIC Women’s Health Services, Elmhurst Hospital’s South Asian Outreach Project (SOAP), and MetroPlus Health Plan.

The fair offered free health screenings and consultations in South Asian languages for adult blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, dental hygiene, oral cancer, HIV, tuberculosis, pediatric, asthma, and smoking.

Individuals who were detected having elevated risk of heart disease were sent for follow-up care at Elmhurst Hospital Center. Analyzing the results of heart disease, Pandya said a substantial number of people had elevated glucose (blood sugar). Onethird of the people, we found suffer from one of these diseases or are prone to it, she said.

One of the major area of concern, she said, was the reluctance on the part of South Asians to go for a tuberculosis test. This is partly because of the social stigma attached with it in India and a lack of awareness about the disease. There are several strains of TB that does not give common symptoms. The incident of TB is quite high among South Asians in particular those from Nepal and Tibet. We are trying to address this problem, she said.

Pandya said, given the fact that a large number of South Asians do not have health insurance of their own, health fairs like this are important. The grant for the event was given by Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and the first community based participatory grant ever awarded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) to support cardiovascular disease work among South Asians. The Jackson Heights Merchants’ Association also participated in the fair.