Disparities in care spur call to action

There's a laundry list of disparities in health care among Nevada's racial and ethnic groups, as is the case across the country.

UNLV's Center for Health Disparities Research says it's time to stop talking about gaps in cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity and lack of health insurance among these groups and start getting something done about them.

"That's not something we can or should be doing ourselves,'' said Michelle Chino, the center's director. "We have a partnership with community health organizations specifically to recognize and eliminate health disparities. ... The frustrating part is there are no easy answers and this issue is just so overwhelming.''

The center, along with the American Indian Research and Education Center, is meeting today with local health care providers and organizations to brainstorm and discuss steps toward eliminating health care disparities.

The meeting is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the University of Nevada Reno's Cooperative Extension offices, 8050 S. Maryland Parkway.

Gilbert Lee, a public health expert from the University of California at Los Angeles, is the keynote speaker.

The Southern Nevada Health District, the state Division of Health, the Nevada Cancer Institute and area hospitals were also invited to attend today's event.

Health disparities are defined as population-specific differences in disease, health outcomes -- morbidity and mortality -- or access to health care. The biggest health disparities for preventable conditions often exist among racial and ethnic minority populations.

As a whole, U.S. racial and ethnic minorities have higher rates of disease morbidity and mortality. Experts believe the higher rates are the result of socioeconomic, environmental and systematic gaps in the quality of health and health care across groups.

Hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer rates and death rates vary widely by race and ethnicity in Southern Nevada, according to the health district's Clark County Health Status Report released this summer.

For example, among Clark County's adult population between 2000 and 2005 blacks had the highest percentage of hypertension -- 35 percent -- compared to Hispanics, 16 percent, and whites, 27 percent. During that same period, 10 percent of blacks had diabetes compared to 6 percent of Hispanics and 7 percent of whites.

A lack of health insurance coverage was more prevalent during this time period for Hispanics -- 45 percent -- than other racial and ethnic groups -- 11 percent for whites and 30 percent for blacks.

"We know what the problems are. Now it's time to really focus on how we can address these issues and move forward,'' said Melva Thompson-Robinson, professor in UNLV's School of Public Health.

Robinson said if the stakeholders can figure out how they want to approach health care issues in minority communities, then the research center could search for appropriate funding through grants.

The center was established in 2004 through a grant from the National Institutes of Health. Chino says the center releases a report at least three times a year identifying what health care problems exist among blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans.

Officials also want to hear from the Asian community.