Sociocultural barriers to medical care among Mexican Americans in Texas: a summary report of research conducted by the Southwest Medical Sociology Ad Hoc Committee.

This paper summarizes research findings from members of the Southwest Medical Sociology Ad Hoc Committee concerning sociocultural barriers to medical care among Mexican Americans in Texas. Committee members individually, or in two-person groups, studied a number of factors concerning Mexican-American medical care in Texas such as: 1) mortality, morbidity, and other health status indicators; 2) health manpower and educational needs; 3) political factors impeding economical health care; 4) alienation, familism, and their relationship to utilization of the health services; 5) language and communication barriers; and 6) folk medicine. Findings include documentation that structural alienation of Mexican-Americans from mainstream Anglo-American middle-class society is carried over into their relation with utilization of the health care delivery system; that their emphasis on familism works alternatively to encourage and discourage their seeking access to health care; the language differences serve to perpetuate certain cultural differences that are inimical to health care delivery; and that curanderismo can be seen as complementing other types of health care. The report concludes with a number of recommendations for accomplishing cultural integration that will lead to better care for this segment of the health population.