A four-year study has found that Kansas minorities are not as healthy as their white counterparts.

“The indicators of disparities are pervasive,” said Kim Kimminau, senior vice president for research and analysis at the Kansas Health Institute.

The 119-page report was released Wednesday in conjunction with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s first annual “Minority Health Conference: Connecting Kansas Communities” at the Lawrence Holidome.

“We have a lot of work to do,” said Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. She addressed conferees at noon.

The disparities, Sebelius said, confirmed her administration’s long-held notion that a “one-size (health care policy) does not fit all,” and should be flexible enough to reach minority communities within the state.

Among the study’s findings:

• Blacks in Kansas are 34 percent more likely to die of cancer and twice as likely to die of diabetes than whites, and black males are 50 percent more likely to have prostate, lung and colorectal cancer than white males.
• The rate of teen pregnancies among blacks is nearly twice that of whites. More than half of all black families are headed by single parents.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Kansas: A Data and Chartbook (.pdf)

• Though blacks constitute 7 percent of the state’s population, they comprise 18 percent of the state’s AIDS and HIV diagnoses.
• One in four Hispanics lacks health insurance. For the population at large, the ratio is one in 10.
• Less than half of the Hispanic women who’ve given birth since 1990 have high school degrees. That’s more than double the rate for whites (18 percent).
• Nearly one in three American Indians smoke.
• Among their peers, American Indian junior high and high school students have the highest rates of tobacco and marijuana usage. They and their Hispanic counterparts tied for highest rate of alcohol use (47 percent).
• American Indians are 72 percent more likely to die from diabetes that the rest of the population.

The findings came as no surprise to Caroline Hicks, director at Pelathe Community Resource Center, 1423 Haskell Ave.

“The disparities they’re talking about — they’re definitely there, they’re definitely real,” she said. “The thing about diabetes is really true. I see it every day.”

But the disparities are not limited to health care issues, Kimminau said.

For example, 8 percent of the state’s American Indian households do not have a telephone, compared with 3 percent of the population at large.

Blacks are twice as likely to live in rental housing as whites.

At least 21,000 households do not include adults who speak English. Most are Spanish speaking.

These and other factors, Kimminau said, need to be addressed in the state’s health care initiatives. Too many times, she said, policy makers focus on finding ways to insure the uninsured when the issues are considerably more complicated.

Kimminau urged KDHE to establish an Office of Minority Health. “(Kansas) is one of only five states without one,” she said. “All the neighboring states have one.”

KDHE Secretary Rod Bremby vowed to include the study’s findings in department’s policy deliberations. He said he also favors creating an Office of Minority Health within the department.