April is Minority Health Month

April is Minority Health Month and is a cause to reflect on such particularly here in our border community in which nearly 80% of our residents are Hispanics of Mexican origin. According to a recently released report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality a Health and Human Resources Administration of the USA government the majority of minorities EXCEPT Hispanics when compared to non Hispanic white are not making significant progress towards the elimination of health disparities. The rate of HIV/AIDS among Hispanics is now more than three times higher than their comparison group. The rate of obesity is significantly higher among Hispanics and it’s now known that such can lead to cardiac disease and diabetes. Obesity is now becoming the primary cause of cancer. A number of studies have linked obesity to breast and colon cancer and also to cancer of rectum, kidney, pancreas, and esophagus. Obesity is approaching epidemic proportions and with Hispanics the rate of obesity is higher than in other minority groups. Diabetes is the third leading cause of death in the border and the number one cause of death on the Mexico side of the U.S.-Mexico border. A tuberculosis infection along the border is 8.96 per 100,000 compared to 4.6 per 100,000 in the rest of the USA.
In El Paso County the uninsured rate is 40% and in studies conducted by the School of Nursing at The University of Texas at El Paso shows the rate exceeds 60% in some colonias. Those uninsured remain in many cases our most vulnerable: women and children. Further more a serious shortage of health care providers along the border and in some cases restrictive practice acts limit the access of residents to health care. The numbers of nurse practitioners who can provide high quality care is significantly below the ratio in metropolitan areas 22.3 compared to 14.2 per 100,000 in the metropolitan border areas. The number of registered nurses is 468.9 in metropolitan border areas compared to non border metropolitan areas of 715.3 per 100,000.
The School of Nursing at UTEP is meeting this challenge, which is to provide more nurse practitioners and registered nurses through substantial increases in its enrollment and this academic year will have one of the largest groups of nurses graduating in the history of the School. Faculty shortages, limited clinical sites, and salary pressure have created challenges. However innovations in curriculum, state of the art teaching methodologies and committed faculty are assisting UTEP in meeting these challenges. It takes a health care team involved in education, patients care, and research to eliminate health disparities in our Hispanic population.