Latino child health: Need for inclusion in the US national discourse

The "rediscovery" of poverty, as echoed in concepts of social inequality, h as contributed to the goal of eliminating racial/ethnic and social class di sparities in the United States. This commentary focuses on what we know abo ut the pressing health care needs and issues relevant to Latino children an d families and how extant knowledge can be linked to priority policy recomm endations to ensure the inclusion of Latino health issues in the national d iscourse. A systematic review of the literature on Latino children and of expert opin ion revealed I evidence-based themes focused on poverty: economic factors, family and community resources, health system factors. and pitfalls in Lati no subgroup data collection. Consensus was found on 4 priority policy recom mendations: (I)reduce poverty and increase access to health care coverage, (2) increase funding in targeted primary and preventive health care service s, (3) provide funds needed to fully implement relevant health legislation, and (4) improve measurement and quality of data collection. If these recom mendations are not instituted, the goals of Healthy People 2010 will not be achieved for the Latino population.