Session: Understanding Impacts of Social Networks to Latinx Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Near Mexico-US Border in the Southwest Region (Society for Social Work and Research 25th Annual Conference - Social Work Science for Social Change)

Background: Latinx patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) near the Mexico-United States (U.S.) border in the Southwest region experience health disparities, substantially contributed by disadvantaged social determinants of health (e.g., lack of health insurance) due to discriminatory social and policy institutions against Latinx immigrants. In this context, community health centers situated in low-income Latinx communities have been a major equalizer against efforts to disenfranchise Latinx patients from access to care. Partly supported by a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) federal subsidy, community health centers have become the foremost provider of culturally competent health care delivered by Spanish-speaking health workers serving uninsured or underinsured Latinx patients with T2DM. However, disadvantaged Latinx patients relying on this health care setting have received little attention in the literature, creating a research gap in the impact of their social networks on diabetes management, quality of life, and socio-cultural mechanisms. Therefore, this symposium aims to provide a space for discussion on highlighting socio-cultural mechanisms by which social environments contribute to diabetes management and quality of life among Latinx patients with T2DM who live in ethnic enclaves in the Southwest region of the U.S.

Data source: Four studies proposed in this symposium were produced by an interdisciplinary team to understand social networks and their impacts on Latinx patients with T2DM. Dr. XX is the PI of a pilot project that was supported by the National Institute on Minorities and Health Disparities (NIMHD/NIH: XXXXX). This study was developed through a community-embedded partnership between the university and a local community health center located within a Latinx enclave. Bilingual recruiters worked with a promotora, a community health worker in the community health center, for recruitment and data collection between February and December 2019. We conducted personal networks analysis (PNA) incorporating nine name generating questions and a series of name interpreting questions, resulting in a variety of social network measures, including size, constraint, efficiency, proportion of social networks talking about health matters, and so forth.

Four Studies for Oral Presentations. Study 1 focused on identifying attributes of social networks relevant to health literacy of Latinx patients with T2DM. Study 2 examined social network characteristics and their impact on mental health stigma. Study 3 examined the influence of social networks on trust in health professionals. Study 4 examined how social networks are associated with perceived social support among Latinx patients with T2DM.

Expected Impact: Although PNA is an innovative and versatile approach to measure structure and function of social environments, it has been under-utilized in health disparities research due to the complexity in data management and variable operationalization. Thus, in addition to discussing the socio-cultural mechanisms affecting health disparities, we introduce PNA to advance research on a marginalized population.