Four years after a similar national conference on African immigrant health, a wide variety of groups and individuals have gathered this weekend in Green Tree to continue their efforts to help community- and faith-based organizations eliminate health disparities among African immigrants and refugees.
The Office of Minority Health Resource Center, in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is sponsoring the meeting free to the public through Sunday at the DoubleTree by Hilton, 500 Mansfield Ave. Medical, health and human services experts and patient advocates from across the country are examining health-related trends and comparing successful efforts with others who serve the people from Africa.
The 2nd United States Conference on African Immigrant and Refugee Health aims to share the knowledge and build a “national agenda for action” to end disparities, according to event coordinator Annamore Matambanadzo, executive director of Pittsburgh-based Advance African Development Inc. She first came from Zimbabwe to the city in 1998 as a Fulbright Scholar to work on her Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh. She also is a consultant on African culture and health disparities.
Another member of the event planning committee, Rebekah Ndinda Ngewa of U.S. Doctors for Africa, said Ms. Matambanadzo drew the group to Pittsburgh because she had connections here.
“We hope to do it every two years from now on, in cities where there is a large African community,” Ms. Ngewa said at Friday’s sessions. One of the key concerns of the group is the change in health that happens after people come to the United States. “It’s called the healthy immigrant effect,” she said, explaining that after coming from a culture where people are physically active and have a healthy diet, immigrants develop habits that can lead to poor health.
“They come here, have to work two to three jobs, walk less, eat more fast food, gain weight and can develop conditions like diabetes and hypertension,” Ms. Ngewa said.
In her welcome message, Ms. Matambanadzo pointed out there is limited information about the numbers of immigrants and how healthy or sick they are, but it is known that people from Africa have been coming to the United States in larger numbers for the past 20 years. The population of African immigrants in Allegheny County has increased tenfold since 1980, from 200 in 1980 to 2,024 in 2010, according to the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research.
Ms. Matambanadzo explained how immigrants’ habits change: “Back home, we prepare our meals; we don’t eat out; we don’t have as many fast-food places. We come here, we are riding the bus; we don’t walk as much. We go from being very active to being very laid-back.”
She said another new idea is preventive care. “You only go to the hospital when you’re sick. Nobody really educates you, tells you about early screenings, taking vaccines. It’s contrary to what we do back home.”
Obstacles to good health include their own behavior and the skills of health care providers. For example, to best serve their African clients, providers need “cultural competency,” or an understanding of the clients’ beliefs related to their health.
Ms. Matambanadzo said issues that challenge the immigrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, include HIV, sickle cell disease (more than 200,000 children in Africa are born with it every year), mental health problems and domestic violence. On Friday, Fatima Porgho from Burkina-Faso shared her experience as a victim of marital rape. Cultural pressures kept her a prisoner of her husband in her home, she said, adding that social workers should be aware of this kind of abuse. Ms. Porgho also will participate this afternoon on a panel about female circumcision.
Organizers say they hope that after the event, practices that promise to make a difference in improving health disparities will be promoted and used.
They aim to develop recommendations for better data collection by organizations serving the immigrants and refugees, data that promises to be useful in combating disparities in their care.
Today’s sessions start at 8 a.m., with the topic of healthy diet and lifestyles. Keynote speaker Anne E. Sumner of the National Institutes of Health will talk at 9:30 a.m. about “Re-Evaluation of the Healthy Immigrant Effect.” Morning workshop sessions include financial literacy for nonprofits and talks with federal government agency representatives. In the afternoon, hepatitis B will be discussed, as well as HIV, research and data collection, migration and integration of people from Africa, hypertension and mental health.
Sunday morning sessions start at 8:30, with the agenda setting at 12:30 p.m. moderated by Margaret Korto of the Office of Minority Health Resource Center.