BOISE, Idaho — Hispanics and Latinos are the largest ethnic group in the Gem State with more than 239,407 but there are still major gaps when it comes to health.
Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affair’s Community Resource Development Specialist, J.J. Saldaña said, "Health and education continue to be the biggest issues when it comes to Idaho's Hispanic population."
Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs (ICHA) and Idaho State University (ISP) worked together to collect data for the Idaho Hispanic Health Report. One of their biggest findings was the increase in obesity in Hispanic adults.
“We are also seeing that - we tend to be overweight than our counterparts, that also leads to diabetes,” Saldaña said.
The report shows 74.6 percent of Idaho’s Hispanic adults are overweight or obese compared to 67.5 percent of non-Hispanic adults. ICHA’s Community Resource Development Specialist, J.J. Saldana says it stems further from just the foods they eat.
"I think a lot of people here in Idaho in the Hispanic community have hard-working jobs, so when they get off work that is our down time that is time to relax, so we are not going to the gym as much as our counterparts are,” Saldaña said.
Children are not left behind when it comes to this data. The report shows Hispanic high school students are less likely to join a sports team, limiting their options.
“Cost is a big deal. You have to pay for uniforms, physicals, pay for this. It's also an acceptance thing. A lot of students don't feel they would be accepted in certain sports. It can be a tricky thing,” Saldaña said.
Accessing Health Care is also an issue in Idaho’s Hispanic community. Saldana says Hispanics are less likely to have health insurance because of the cost and because some agricultural or hospitality jobs don’t offer health insurance. The report shows 25.5 percent of Hispanic adults and 10.5 percent of children are uninsured.
"We had conversations with families that told us 'We dropped our insurance because we had to pay the power bill this month or the insurance.' I think having more accessible insurance is going to play a huge key,” Saldaña said.
Limited access to healthcare providers is another disparity.
"We do need to do a lot better. For the smaller rural areas, they have to travel to get any kind of health care,” Saldaña said.
In 2020, Idaho saw 16,402 total deaths statewide. Of that number, 733 were Hispanic. The report shows 19.2 percent of those Hispanic deaths were caused by COVID-19, making it the leading cause of death for that community.
“There was a lot of misinformation. We did not do a good job getting the word out to that community. By the time we tried getting the info out, it was too late,” Saldaña said.
On Wednesday, ICHA hosted its first Hispanic/American Indian Healthcare Conference in Twin Falls to talk about these issues with health agencies.
“They are here, and they want to know how they can do a better job. They have said 'Help us, we want to do better. How can we do better outreach?' That's a really great opportunity for us to have right now,” Saldaña said.
Another part of the report detailed that many Hispanic and Latinos rely on relatives and community members to help heal using a traditional system also known as curanderismo, which is a holistic approach.
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