What We Learned About The Health of the Community We Serve From Our First Medical Fair

Having good health is a key part of living a happy and full life. When you don’t have access to healthcare, as is the case with many of the asylum seekers and internally displaced persons (IDPs) we serve, living a healthy life can be difficult. As a way to provide the people we serve with healthcare, we organized our first “Smiles and Screening” health and dental fair from May 13-15, 2021 and our second is scheduled for November 20-22, 2021.

Andy Noh (MSN, CNP) takes a patient’s blood sugar at our Smiles and Screening health fair in May 2021

Dr. Joseph Lee (DMD, MPH), checks a patient’s teeth at the Smiles and Screening health fair in May 2021

What did we learn from the health fair about common health issues among those we serve? Here are some of the big takeaways:

Demographics

Age

Just who did we serve in our health fair? Many of the attendees were children, and 44.9% were aged 10 and under. Many of the adults were young as well; 16.9% were between 20-29 years old and 11% were between 30-39 years old. 5.9% of the attendees were 50 years and older.

Below is a chart showing age distributions of the health fair attendees.

Many children an young adults showed up for our health fair. Note: “Edad” is the Spanish word for “age”.

Gender

Females made up a large portion of health fair attendees, with 60.2% of participants being female and 39.8% were male.

Obesity

Obesity is a common health problem among both children and adults. About 63% of children were normal weight. A little over 11% of children were overweight, and 13.9% of children were obese or morbidly obese. Not having enough nutrition and weight was an issue for some children as well, and 5.6% of children were underweight.

For adults, 76% were overweight of those 21.7% were obese, and 23.9% were morbidly obese. About 21.7% of adults had normal weight.

This chart shows overweight and obesity levels for children who attended our health fair

This chart shows overweight and obesity levels for adults who attended the health fair.

High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure, also called hypertension, is another common health issue we found. While around 32.6% had normal blood pressure, 32.6% had pre-hypertension, meaning that their blood pressure was higher and could lead to hypertension if not treated. 34.7% had either Stage 1 or Stage 2 hypertension.

Diabetes

Yet another common health condition that we found is diabetes. A little over 19% of the adult population had diabetes, and 7% had pre-diabetes, meaning that their blood sugar was high enough that they are at risk of developing diabetes if they do nothing to treat it. Health fair participants were classified as diabetic or not based on blood sugar levels and not an official diagnosis of diabetes. Additionally, 11 participants were taking metformin, which is a medicine used to treat diabetes. Given how young the adults are, there are significant warning signs for future illness.

Children were very inquisitive with their new experience.

Our team was surprised at the number of people that turned up to receive a medical check-up.

Andy Noh (MSN, CNP) does a great job putting children at ease.

Many kids did not want to venture too far from their parents

Blood Sugar

Based on blood sugar levels taken at the health fair, a little over 49% of participants had normal blood sugar levels. 7.0% had blood sugar levels that indicate they could develop diabetes if they do not watch their blood sugar levels, and 8.8% had high blood sugar levels that indicate they might have diabetes. 35.1% of attendees had blood sugar levels that were high, but the attendee had eaten recently meaning that their actual blood sugar level is inconclusive.

Cavities and Dental Health

67.3% of children had at least one cavity. They also had more cavities in baby teeth than in their adult teeth; 54.5% had at least one cavity in a baby tooth but 39.1% had at least one cavity in an adult tooth.

Among adult attendees, 50% had at least one cavity. One attendee even had 11 cavities!

About 11.7% of attendees had at least one missing tooth. Several people also had root tops, meaning that they had a tooth that had not been pulled out all the way, and part of the tooth was left behind.

Here is the dental card for this 8-year-old girl. She has 8 cavities and said she drinks 2 cups of soda per day. Urgent changes are needed.

So many teeth have almost rotted away. Without better dental practices, this child will likely lose her adult teeth as well.

Sugary Drink Consumption

One factor that could be why some of these health issues are common is the large amount of sugary drinks that they regularly consume. Almost 22% of health fair attendees said they drank 1 cup of sugary drink per day, and 23.6% said they drank two cups of sugary drink per day. 30.9% said they drank less than 1 cup a day. 8.2% said they drank 1 liter a day, and one health fair attendee even reported drinking 6L a day!

Other Findings

Vision problems are other common health issues we found during our health fair. About 20.8% of attendees needed some sort of vison assistance. For many people, it was either needing a stronger glasses prescription or being nearsighted and needing to get a pair of glasses. Others had blurry vision, which could be related to diabetes. Due to this finding, we will be bringing an optometrist with us for our upcoming health fair in November 2021.

Despite inconsistent access to health care, 64 out of approximately 70 children who attended the health fair had received either all of their vaccines or at least some of them.

Andy Noh (MSN, CNP) examines patients at the Smiles and Screening health fair in May 2021

Looking Forward

MdC is organizing a second Smiles and Screening event in San Luis Rio Colorado that is planned for November 20-22, 2021. We will be bringing an optometrist, pediatric dentist and more medical professionals. Learn more about our Smiles and Screening health fairs and how you can help our upcoming health fair in November on our Medical and Dental Trips page.