Addressing health disparities for vulnerable populations in the United States is a national goal. Immigrant Hispanic women, at increased risk for heart disease, face obstacles in receiving adequate health care. Health promotion, especially for Hispanic women, is hindered by language, access to care, lack of insurance, and cultural factors. Innovative health education approaches are needed to reach this population. This article describes the development and evaluation of a culturally sensitive cardiac health education program based on findings from a study of 21 older immigrant Hispanic women employed as housekeepers at a small university in south Texas. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures had decreased 17 months after the intervention.

This study used a descriptive correlational design to describe the relationship between cardiovascular risk and anxiety, spirituality, acculturation, and the objective indices of cardiac risk among a sample of 21 adult Hispanic women. Objective indices of risk included weight, blood pressure, blood lipids, and glucose. Four survey instruments were used to assess anxiety, spirituality, acculturation, and perceived risk. Findings revealed that aU study participants had 3 or more risk factors, placing them in the moderate risk category for developing heart disease or having a heart attack within 10 years. State and trait anxiety scores were lower than the normative samples for adult women. Spirituality scores were higher than average; individuals with higher anxiety scores had lower spirituality scores. More research is needed to determine the health needs of unskilled workers with limited education in employment settings.

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Some basic haematological characteristics of a group of competitive swimmers were compared with haematological “normal standards” and with a “control” group of non-athletes, unmatched for age. In the women, the values for red blood cell count, haemoglobin concentration, and mean red cell volume for both the swimmers and the controls were not significantly different from the normal standards. In the groups of men, both swimmers and controls, red cell counts were significantly lower than the normal standard values, although individual values lay within the “normal range” (mean ± 2 standard deviations). The ranges of the values for individuals were found to be narrow. There were no significant differences between these ranges over periods of five consecutive weeks and five consecutive months. Relatively large changes in results for individuals could occur before the results would be considered abnormal, that is, before the results fall outside the “normal range”. Early detection of changes may perhaps be facilitated if the range of values for individual athletes is determined by monitoring.

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