Latino Californians face serious health challenges in 2023

Written by Parriva — October 5, 2023
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High rates of food insecurity, hate incidents and difficulties accessing health care were at the forefront of issues affecting the health of Californians in 2022, according to the annual California Health Interview Survey, or CHIS, released today by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

According to 2022 data from CHIS, the nation’s largest annual health survey on a single state, a growing number of low-income adult Californians (those living below 200% of the federal poverty level) struggled to access nutritious and affordable food. In 2022, 44% of these low-income Californians were not able to afford enough food, up from 35.8% in 2020. The most significant increase in food insecurity between 2020 and 2022 occurred among low-income, working-age adults, with the figure jumping 11 percentage points among those ages 18–24, to 47.7%; 8.6 percentage points among those 25–39, to 51.4%; and 12.4 percentage points among those 40–64, to 48%.

Among racial or ethnic groups, Latino adults experienced the highest increase in food insecurity, with a 9.6 percentage point increase, to 47%. The highest overall rates of food insecurity in 2022 were seen among adults of two or more races and Black or African American adults, at 49.9% and 48.6%, respectively.

The 2022 CHIS also included new and expanded questions on experiences with hate crimes or incidents. While more than 1 in 9 adults in California, or 11.7%, said they had at some point been a victim of a hate crime or incident, the rate among Black or African American adults was 26.2% — four times as high as the figure for white adults, at 6.3%. The figure was 17.4% for adults who identify as two or more races, 15.6% for Asian adults and 13.5% for Latino adults.

“Our 2022 data reveal a complex health landscape — deepening food insecurity, hate incidents, challenges in accessing health care and an ongoing mental health crisis — that paints a stark picture of the challenges faced by California’s large and diverse population,” said Ninez Ponce, center director and the survey’s principal investigator. “We call on community organizations and advocates, legislators and policymakers to explore the new data and address these pressing issues.”

A bright spot in the data was that 94.8% of respondents had health insurance — the highest rate ever recorded by CHIS. Latino adults had the lowest rate of health coverage but the most significant increase in coverage between 2021 and 2022, from 86.0% to 89.4%.

However, difficulty accessing care was a concern among many survey respondents, with more than 1 in 5 California adults (22.4%) unable to get a doctor’s appointment within two days in 2022, up from 12.3% in 2020. Similarly, one-third of adults (33.3%) who needed mental health care in 2022 said difficulty getting an appointment was the reason they hadn’t received the help they needed, up from 24.4% in 2021.

CHIS has highlighted gaps and inequities in health and health care access for more than two decades. The latest survey, which included responses from 21,463 adults, 985 teenagers and 3,395 children, covered a wide range of health topics and topics that influence health — among them, access to and use of health care, health insurance, health conditions, health behaviors, mental health, housing, intimate partner violence, child care, caregiving, discrimination, climate change, firearm safety and gun violence, and community engagement.

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