ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of key issues in Latino health. It is not intended to be an exhaustive review of the state of the literature on Latino health. Rather, significant areas are highlighted for further research on the health of Latinos in the United States. This chapter describes the Latino population, and presents a brief profile of the health of Latinos. Next, key issues on acculturation are discussed, focusing on health behavior and other norms, especially familism and fatalism. It then describe features of social environments that may shape health, specifically, the neighborhoods in which Latinos reside. The chapter then proceeds to discuss broader macro-level influences on health; specifically, policies that affect access to health care and immigration. This chapter concludes that the study of Latino health requires expansive models that consider interactions between national origin, acculturation, and broad determinants of health that include cultural, social, and political contexts.
