This book is a roadmap of the exact health
disparities that burden the health of South Texas
residents, especially Hispanics, compared to the rest of
Texas and nation. This type of knowledge has the
potential to fuel and motivate researchers and public
health leaders to create and shape interventions to
reverse those health disparities. Most notably, focus on
obesity and diabetes prevention efforts and modifiable
risk factors—such as nutrition, reproductive factors and
access to health care—has significant potential to
reduce the burden of disease in South Texas
communities.South Texas, a 38-county region that spans
45,000 square miles along the Texas-Mexico border
northward to the area around metropolitan Bexar County
(home to San Antonio), is home to 18% of the state’s
population. Yet South Texas residents, who are 68%
Hispanic, struggle with lower educational levels, less
income and less access to health care—and, as a result,
suffer from a wide variety of health disparities. To
study the health status and identify the exact health
disparities that exist in the region, researchers from
The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio teamed with
researchers from the Texas Department of State Health
Services to develop the South Texas Health Status
Review.The Review team analyzed a variety of the latest
county, state and national data to compare South Texas’
incidence, prevalence and mortality rates for more than
35 health indicators—from cancers to chronic diseases
like diabetes to communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS to
maternal health and even environmental health—to the
rest of Texas and the nation by age, sex, race/ethnicity
and rural/urban location.
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