Data highlight health gaps for Hispanic kids

Hispanic children are more likely to be uninsured, overweight, give birth as teens and miss out on childhood immunizations.

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. Sept. 5, 2005.

Hispanic children continue to do worse than whites on a number of key health indicators, according to a new report jointly issued by a collection of federal agencies.

Eighty-eight percent of white, non-Hispanic children were reported to be in very good or excellent health, but only 74% of Hispanic children were reported to be in these categories, according to "America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2005," released in July by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Hispanic children also trailed white children by five percentage points -- 84% to 79% -- on the rate at which they received the combined immunization series.

Mexican-Americans -- who make up two-thirds of the U.S. Hispanic population -- are the most likely to be overweight. According to the report, 27% of Mexican-American boys are overweight, compared to 15% of white boys.

The Hispanic teen birth rate is also the highest of any racial or ethnic group, with 50 out of every 1,000 Hispanic girls ages 15-17 giving birth, compared to 39 for blacks and 12 for whites.

In 2002 the U.S. Census Bureau tallied Hispanics at 37.4 million, or 13.3% of the total population, but they account for 36% of all uninsured children, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's 2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.

The move by several states to cut or freeze State Children's Health Insurance Program enrollment to plug budget holes has had a disproportionate impact on Hispanics, 25% of whom rely solely on taxpayer-provided health care, according to AHRQ's August report.