Wichita ? Infant morality among blacks in Kansas is double the statewide average, and black men have the highest rates of prostate cancer, lung cancer and colorectal cancer, according to a study on minorities and health care released Wednesday.

The study, titled Minority Health Disparities in Kansas, prepared by the Kansas Health Institute and the state Department of Health and Environment, also found that although blacks comprise less than 8 percent of the state’s population, they constitute almost 18 percent of the diagnosed AIDS cases.

More broadly, the study’s authors say language barriers, poverty, lack of insurance and access to medical providers have created a health care gulf between minorities and white Kansans.

The study was released at a summit on minority health issues. It was funded by the Kansas Health Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The study looked at minority communities in Wichita, Garden City and Kansas City, Kan.

“It is a very important summit — that you here in Kansas may be getting a jump on in regards to what is going on in the other states,” former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders told the group.

“You are no different from the rest of this country,” Elders said.

The former surgeon general also criticized the nation’s health care system, saying there are major gaps in health care for minorities.

In Kansas, the leading causes of death are related to cardiovascular health. The study documented that 30 percent of blacks and 35 percent of Native Americans report they have high blood pressure. These minority groups also die from coronary heart disease at a higher rate the rest of the population.

By contrast, Hispanics have a much lower incidence of coronary heart disease. But that is affected by the fact that the state’s Hispanic population is relatively young — their median age is 23 years compared to 35 years for the state as a whole, the study found.

Some of the causes of the disparities were linked to socio-economic factors such as the cost of health care, unemployment and poverty.

Almost 100,000 Kansans cannot communicate well enough in English to share their medical histories, symptoms and health concerns with their doctors, the study said.

Different minority groups participate at varying levels in public health insurance programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Blacks were the most likely to enroll, Hispanics the least.

An earlier study — the Kansas Health Insurance Study, conducted by the Kansas University Medical Center for the state Insurance Department — had found 10.3 percent of all Kansans under age 65 are without insurance, and 7.7 percent of Kansas children are uninsured. Of all uninsured Kansans, 20.7 percent are Hispanic and 8.5 percent are black.

Penney Schwab, executive director of United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries in Garden City, said the needs of new immigrants — many from rural areas of Mexico, Central America and Asia — are sometimes quite different from those of more established minority communities.

Southwest Kansas has the highest percentage of uninsured people in the state, and between 70 and 74 percent of the people who come to her clinic have no insurance, she said.

Christine Molle, director of the American Indian Council Employment and Training Center and a member of the Cherokee tribe in Oklahoma, said American Indians have the highest percentages of diabetes, alcoholism and tuberculosis.

“Indian health services — its current health status, the way it is — is just another form of genocide,” Molle said.