Seniors’ health declines in state

Felicitas Conde, 60, loves to walk.

But in her South Los Angeles neighborhood, Conde said she is too scared to use the sidewalk or to go to the park to exercise. A robber several years ago forced her off the bicycle she was riding and stole it.

At the local supermarket, she longs for fresh fruits -- persimmons, plantains, strawberries. She is particularly attracted to the small, plastic boxes of fresh blueberries.

“I know they are good for your health,” Conde said, “but they are too expensive.” She can only afford radishes and onions.

Conde has high blood pressure, high cholesterol and weighs too much. If her health does not improve significantly by the time she turns 65, Conde will join a growing number of older Californians whose health is threatened by chronic conditions.

Three out of five seniors in California had high blood pressure in 2005, up from half in 2001. Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Merced, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, Tulare and Yolo counties all saw statistically significant increases in high blood pressure, according to a UCLA study released Thursday.

“If those trends continue . . . we’re going to come up against a wall as to what medicine can do to keep these people alive,” said Steven P. Wallace, a UCLA professor of public health and coauthor of the report based on the California Health Interview Survey, which polls about 50,000 households across the state every two years.

The study found that significant racial gaps remained.

Diabetes and obesity are nearly twice as high for older African Americans and Latinos than whites.

In addition, Asian American, black and Latino seniors were three times as likely to report difficulty getting enough to eat.

The numbers are worst in South Los Angeles and an eight-county area in the Central Valley, where one in four seniors reported being diagnosed with diabetes.

Statewide, one in six seniors has diabetes, which is the fifth most common cause of death among older adults in the U.S.

Tulare County in the Central Valley had the highest rate of hypertension, while South Los Angeles was a close second. In both locations, seven out of 10 residents reported high blood pressure.

The rising number of seniors reporting the chronic conditions has healthcare providers and experts concerned.

As baby boomers age, California’s senior population is expected to double in the next two decades, rising to nearly 8 million by 2026. They also will make up a greater share of the state’s population, increasing from 11% to nearly 17%.

Wallace, the study author, called the trends a “canary in the mine. We’re definitely not ready for a baby-boom generation that’s sicker than the current population.”

In South Los Angeles this week, older residents easily ticked off reasons why they and their neighbors fared poorly.

“There are too many McDonald’s and Taco Bells. There’s only junk food around,” said Martha Vivas, 62, a housekeeper at South Central Family Health Center in South L.A.

(A recent Times analysis found that South L.A. had the city’s highest concentration of fast-food eateries.)

Vivas said she ate a lot of fast food before she was diagnosed with diabetes six years ago. She said she now avoids fast food and cooks at home.

But she said she misses many traditional Salvadoran foods, including fried fish, fried meats and pupusas -- thick griddle-baked tortillas stuffed with pork or beans and cheese.

“It is hard,” Vivas said. “I have dreams with pupusas and pastelitos floating above my head.”

Experts said there are many reasons for the obesity crisis.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are not cheap and often are scarce in low-income South L.A. and, somewhat paradoxically, in Central Valley communities, where laborers pick fruits and vegetables to ship to markets across the nation yet are unable to buy them to eat in their own homes.

Instead, they go to fast-food restaurants, which serve cheap meals rich in fat, served with sodas loaded with sugar.

Those with the lowest incomes are the hardest hit, said Laurie Primavera, associate director of the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at Cal State Fresno.

Laborers “can’t afford the medication; they can’t afford the ongoing chronic disease management,” Primavera said. “They don’t have access to good food, and it’s not safe for them to go out and be active.”

Many in the healthcare field believe a concerted effort on a statewide or federal level is needed.

“It’s not one little program that will solve it,” said William Hobson, chief executive of the Watts Healthcare Corp., which operates clinics in Watts and the Crenshaw district.

He said that without a means to improve the health of older residents, “we will be spending megabucks.”

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ron.lin@latimes.com