By Kevin Preking

WASHINGTON - Hispanic children are less likely than other children to have health insurance or recommended vaccinations, disparities that a government study says will be magnified in the coming years by the nation’s changing demographics.
By the year 2020, nearly one in four American children will be Hispanic, up from fewer than one in five today.
The data in the government report shows that the rising number of Hispanic children would help lower the rate of smoking among teens.
However, teen pregnancy rates would rise and the percentage of students completing high school would fall without changes occurring, said Dr. Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, one of several federal agencies that contributed to the report.
“The people who follow population demographics and health disparities are very concerned about this,” Alexander said.
The report also found that Hispanic children are more likely to live in poverty and to be overweight. Improvements have been made in many categories, such as the percentage of Hispanic children considered to be in very good or excellent health.
The overall rate has improved for all races but especially for blacks and Hispanics. Still, a disparity continues to exist.
The percentage of children ages 5-17 with good or excellent health stands at 87 percent for whites.
For blacks, it’s 74 percent, and for Hispanics, 72 percent.
Overall, the general trend within 25 categories is a good one. Children are less likely to engage in violent crime or be a victim of violent crime than they were a decade ago. They are less likely to become pregnant.

Among the report’s findings:
• Hispanic adults 18-24 were less likely than other adults to have a high school diploma. The breakdown was 91.2 percent for whites, 85 percent for blacks, and 69.2 percent for Hispanics.
• Nearly 25 percent of Hispanic children 12-18 were overweight, compared to 12.9 percent of whites and 21.8 percent of blacks.
• Black children up to age 17 were more likely to live in poverty than their Hispanic or white counterparts: 10 percent for whites, 34 percent for blacks and 30 percent for Hispanics.
• A higher percentage of black girls became unmarried mothers by ages 17-19: 12.9 percent for blacks, 12.7 percent of Hispanics, and 3.2 percent for whites.

“The differences are absolutely clear. They give you pause as to our level of understanding,” said Dr. Edward Sondik, director of the National Center for Health Statistics.
“In some cases, we do understand why the differences are as they are. But in other cases, we don’t know the reasons, and they are the subject of very intense research.” Sondik said the differences are not caused by race. “But there may be circumstances that cause these differences,” he said.
In a few categories, blacks and Hispanics fare better than whites. Only 11.4 percent of black 12th graders reported engaging in binge drinking - five or more drinks in one sitting within the previous two weeks.
Meanwhile, 26 percent of Hispanic 12th graders reported bingedrinking. That number shot up to 32.5 percent for whites.
Black youths also led the way when it came to cutting down on smoking. Only 5.2 percent of black 12th graders reported smoking cigarettes daily in the previous 30 days. That number rose to 8.2 percent for Hispanics and to 18.3 percent for white 12th graders.
“One of the areas we should also look at is behavior, where the disparities are the other way around,” Sondik said.
“There’s something happening there that’s going in the right direction in the black and Hispanic communities.”
The report also showed significant improvements in the concentration of lead in the blood of children.
The median level declined 89 percent. It also showed slight increases in the math scores for fourth and eighth graders in 2003.