TYLER, Texas — A new UT Tyler School of Medicine study shows children in the Northeast Texas area are nearly 2.5 times more likely to die during childhood compared to the national average.
It boils down to a lack of access to health care and resources.
"Almost half of the counties in our Northeast Texas region don't have a pediatrician," said Dr. Valerie Smith, assistant professor of pediatrics at the UT Tyler School of Medicine and author of the The Pediatric Health Status of Northeast Texas study.
No nearby pediatricians means some families in East Texas are lacking in health care for their children. According to the study, almost 60 percent of kids in this area have to travel more than 80 miles for specialty pediatric care.
"There are 105,000 children who live in Northeast Texas who do not have a pediatrician in their county," Smith said.
She said the lack of health care access for children is a critical issue, and it’s worse in East Texas than other parts of the state and the country.
"I intuitively knew from my experience, that we dealt with bigger challenges than many of my colleagues who are in other places in the country," Smith said.
The state of Texas has one of the highest uninsured populations in the nation, according to U.S. Census data from 2021. At that time, 5.2 million Texans were uninsured, equating to 18% of the state.
Children in Northeast Texas are more than twice as likely to be uninsured than the national average.
"We know that we have children who are facing significant health challenges and families who are dealing with losing children," Smith said.
Organizations like Bethesda Health Clinic in Tyler help bridge that gap.
"The cost of health care has been a deterrent for a lot of people, especially the low-income people," said Onissa Mitchell-Fisher, family nurse practitioner at Bethesda Health Clinic. "So that's where we come in. We are income-based and sometimes if they don't qualify, we still give them resources, community resources to refer them to others that can actually to help offset some of the costs."
With studies like this, Smith hopes to bring awareness to the need for health resources and pediatricians for expectant mothers.
For a further look at the study, click HERE to read more.