Social and biological risk factors threaten hispanics/latinos with type 2 diabetes, now at risk for covid-19

Glantz, N. M.; Paczkowski, R.; Larez, A. J.; Gelsey, F.; Yang, B.; Benneyworth, B. D.; Kerr, D.

Hispanics/Latinos have disproportionately poor health outcomes from type 2 diabetes (T2D) and now emerging health threats like COVID-19. Mil Familias is a longitudinal observational cohort study enrolling Hispanic/Latino families with T2D, building a unique real-world dataset of genetic, biological, behavioral, psychosocial, and environmental determinants of health. This analysis showed that this cohort has biological and social risk factors for poor health outcomes from diabetes and emerging health threats. Interim analyses were conducted on the first 158 enrollees (64% female, age 57.6 years, 129 with T2D). In T2D subjects, sub-optimal glycemic control, obesity and uncontrolled blood pressure were common, increasing risk from T2D and COVID-19. Further, validated assessments of social determinants of health reveal inadequate health insurance coverage and low levels of: income, educational attainment, acculturation, trust in physicians, and confidence in their literacy-numeracy skills. Hispanic/Latino adults, especially women, with T2D in the Mil Familias cohort have a cluster of social as well as biological risk factors that make them vulnerable from T2D and new threats like COVID-19. The novel Mil Familias dataset sheds timely light on important social as well as biological risk factors for both communicable and non-communicable disease.