Latino Health in the Texas Panhandle: Policy Implications

ABSTRACT

This study focused on the geospatial aspects of Latino health in the Texas Panhandle from 2011 to 2016. The underpinning question became: As more Panhandle counties became increasingly Latino during the first decade and a half of the twenty-first century, what have been the ramifications for Latino health care and health outcomes in the fifty-four counties? Latino-majority counties worsened between 2011 and 2016 in all six health indicators: children in poverty, adults uninsured, primary care physician ratio, adult obesity, diabetes, and teen birthrate. In 2011 the eleven Latino-majority counties did not statistically differ from eleven non-Hispanic, white-majority counties in the six health indicators. In 2016 the seventeen Latino-majority counties differed statistically from seventeen white-majority counties for primary care physician ratio, percentage of diabetes, and teen birthrate, all three of which were worse for Latinos.

KEYWORDS:

• Latino in-migration
• Texas Panhandle
• Latino health outcomes

Acknowledgements

We thank several health professionals for taking time to visit with us during our Texas Panhandle field work in August 2016, particularly Claudia Bustos, Outreach Coordinator, Community Health Center of Lubbock; Theresa Byrd, Chair, Department of Public Health, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center; Gwen Campbell, City of Amarillo, Department of Public Health; Kelly Northcott, Program Manager, Public Health Preparedness, Texas Department of State Health Services, Lubbock, Texas; Katherine Wells, Director, Department of Public Health, City of Lubbock; Cindy Wetzel, Chief Nursing Officer, Regence Health Network, Amarillo, Texas. We also acknowledge the sound advice of reviewers that improved our article.

Notes

¹ The terms Latino and Hispanic are synonymous in this article.