As of 2015, there is a 36 percent chance that a Hispanic male will develop cancer at some point in their life, with this probability slightly lower for Hispanic females. The most common form of cancer among Hispanic males is prostate cancer with an estimated 13,900 new cases in 2018. The most common form of cancer among Hispanic females is breast cancer, followed by thyroid and uterine corpus cancer. In 2018, there were around 20,400 deaths from cancer among Hispanic females, of which, breast cancer accounted for 3,200 such deaths.
Concerning the mental health of Hispanics in the U.S., an estimated 15.2 percent of the Hispanic population suffered from some mental illness in the past year as of 2017, and 3.3 percent had serious thoughts of suicide. Stress is a common source of mental health issues among all ethnicities and relief activities and techniques are important to reduce and avoid stress and related health problems. A recent survey from Statista found that the most common activities used among Hispanics to relieve stress included listening to or playing music, watching TV, and going for a walk or gardening.
Access to health care and suitable health care professionals remains an issue for many Hispanics in the U.S. As of 2016, there were 1.5 million Hispanic children in the U.S. who did not have health insurance. As they age Hispanic adults expect to rely heavily on Medicare, social security and Medicaid to cover the cost of their health needs, with only 31 percent planning on relying on personal savings or investments. Trouble communicating with health care providers because of language or cultural barriers remains a problem for some Hispanics in the U.S., but the majority rarely or never experience such issues. In 2018, only four percent of Hispanic adults stated they often experienced language barriers when communicating with health care providers.
