6.3 Why is your job important?
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic or a Hantavirus outbreak, work on public health takes center stage. It’s hard to argue against efforts to thoroughly assess and efficiently respond to public dangers in these critical moments, when such research has obvious and tangible impacts on survival and safety, and most people tend to think of public health only in times of crisis. However, the relevance and reach of public health research does not decrease outside of those critical windows, as they continually grapple with how to improve the public’s quality of life and limit the impacts of disease and illness.
It might not appear on the local news like a COVID-19 update, but most of us have witnessed a loved one fight heart disease, cancer, dementia, or another health challenge. Why are some people more prone to specific types of illness? What lifestyle choices can help combat dementia? These are the sorts of questions Ángel and his colleagues in public health work meticulously to answer. Listen to Ángel talk about this research below.
Transcript: “When I first got hired, I started using Spanish mainly on translation, on consenting or documentation, um, I was able to consent participants in Spanish. Those who wanted to have a voice in research but, because they only spoke one language, they were limited. So I was able to bridge that gap and just provide that opportunity, opportunity through my skills. But using Spanish is more than just that. Um, more than just communication. Whenever we, uh, work at my research institute, we also try to analyze or detect any potential Alzheimer’s cases. And when we have that discussion, it’s important to have different points of views. Not just the English language, but also those who grew up here or also native, native speakers like me. Sometimes when we are testing participants, uh, they will use words that I’m not used to like mijo. However, that should not be considered unusual or out of the norm because that’s the Spanish that’s being spoken here, and that for me as a native speaker is fun to see. It’s always good to see these differences and generate some kind of harmony testing among all the participants that we receive every day. Um, additionally, um, our institute here in San Antonio is always being evaluated by the, by the NIH because we bring one of the strongest Spanish, uh, Hispanic cohorts from San Antonio. So me using Spanish helps them have an identity in the NIH, bring a voice to the, uh, for them, and give them to chance to show who they are and also, um, through the business that we do, um, help the community in the future developing resources that can be tailored with these results that we obtain from them.”
If we turn our attention to the context of San Antonio, which has a large Hispanic population, local public health researchers are frequently asked to contribute to national studies by recruiting a large pool of Hispanic participants. Having an unique community makes us stand out as strong contenders for funding from entities like the National Institute of Health (NIH), and our demographics can be particularly important when health disparities based on ethnicity have been identified. For instance, dementia has been shown to affect Hispanic populations significantly more than non-Hispanic white populations, and Ángel and his team seek to better understand why. They recruit a wide variety of Hispanic participants, from different educational and income backgrounds, to achieve the most accurate depiction of who is more vulnerable to dementia and why. For example, is someone’s lower socioeconomic status make them more vulnerable, or do life challenges associated with that lower socioeconomic status contribute to the greater risk? These are important questions that research can answer if we do it right.
