Report: Latino kids missing out on health care

Posted 10:38AM on Wednesday 3rd July 2002 ( 22 years ago )

CHICAGO -- The nation's surging population of Latino children has a disproportionate share of asthma, obesity and other health problems that are not being adequately treated, researchers warn in a new report. The problem is urgent, said Dr. Glenn Flores, a Boston Medical Center physician and lead author of the report in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. ''If the disparities continue, it has the potential to affect the health and productivity and well-being of our entire nation,'' Flores said. There were 12.3 million Latinos under age 18 in 2000 --- the largest such minority group in the country, according to Census Bureau data. Yet because of cultural barriers, a lack of awareness about the group's health needs and perhaps ethnic bias, many Latino children receive sub-optimal health care, the report suggests. Latino children, Flores said, ''are much more likely to have no health insurance, drop out of school, have no regular doctor . . . to have cavities, to attempt suicide if they're a girl, to be obese if they're a boy.'' Flores is the chairman of the Latino Consortium, an American Academy of Pediatrics-sponsored group of experts that examines research and policy issues in Hispanic children's health. The JAMA report is a consensus statement based on consortium members' views of critical health needs. The U.S. Latino population jumped 58 percent from 1990 to 2000, according to census data. Nearly 35 percent are under age 18, compared with 26 percent of the nation's overall population. Hispanics in Hall County numbered 27,242 in 2000, or 20 percent of the population. Language barriers may explain some of the disparities, the authors said. Latinos make up just 5 percent of U.S. pediatricians, 2 percent of nurses and 2.8 percent of dentists. Also, Flores said, very few U.S. medical schools have courses addressing Latino cultural issues.

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