300,000 families living in US-Mexico border towns face exposure to toxic stress
The study abstract, "Assessing Health Status and Housing Quality of Families Living in Model Subdivisions (Colonias) of the Rio Grande Valley," will be presented on Sunday, Sept. 17, at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2017 National Conference & Exhibition in Chicago. "Colonias" are unincorporated, residential model subdivisions that can be found along the U.S.-Mexico border. Researchers conducted 63 surveys of these communities and conducted home visits to understand and document the experiences and conditions of families living there. Colonia dwellers are nearly exclusively of Hispanic ethnicity, the majority of whom are U.S. citizens, though mixed status families are common. There are many children growing up in these homes with nearly half (46 percent) of families in severely overcrowded environments. The neighborhoods had poor infrastructure including lack of water, electricity, paved roads, streetlights, adequate sewage, wastewater treatment, and tr...