New Mexico American Indian Health Status

Results

Population Characteristics
The New Mexico AI/AN population has increased over the past 10 years and in 2002 made up approximately 10.3% of the total population1. The proportions of AI/AN males and females are about equal until the age group 25-34 years when there begins to be a higher proportion of females than males. A similar change takes place in the general NM population. The New Mexico AI/AN population is younger than the total population with 48% of the population under age 25 years, as compared to 37% for all races.

Births
The NM AI/AN crude birth rate decreased from 1993-2002, but remained higher than that of all races. Also, during this period, an increasing number of NM AI/AN births were attended by certified nurse midwives. About 18% of AI/AN births in 2002 were to teens compared to 17% among all races. AI/AN births to single mothers remained stable over the past 10 years at about 70%, compared to all races at 47% in 2002².

Deaths
The NM AI/AN infant mortality rate decreased over the past 10 years but remains higher than that for allraces in 2002 (7.2 and 6.1 per 1,000 live births, respectively). The AI/AN infant mortality rate decreased about 38% from 1994 to 2002². The top 5 leading causes of death in the NM AI/AN population for 2000-2002 were cancers, unintentional injuries, disease of the heart, diabetes, and chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. The New Mexico AI/AN population had lower age-adjusted mortality rates per 100,000 population from heart disease (159.0 and 190.3, respectively), cancer (145.4 and 170.2, respectively), and suicide (16.8 and 19.3, respectively) as compared to all races, although the death rates from heart disease and cancer have increased in recent years for the AI/AN population. Death rates for the AI/AN population are higher than those of all races for unintentional injuries (88.0 and 55.1, respectively) and diabetes (75.7 and 31.7, respectively) and have also been increasing over the past several years. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis death rates have decreased in recent years but remain much higher than the death rate for all races (45.7 and 17.8, respectively).

Diseases and Conditions
The leading causes of cancer incidence by gender for the NM AI/AN population during 1996-2001 were prostrate, colorectal, lung, kidney, and stomach cancer among males and breast, colorectal, ovarian, corpus and uterus, and stomach cancer among females³. Changes in cancer rates over the past 25 years have varied depending on the site of the cancer. Stomach cancer rates for both AI/AN males and females has decreased over the past 25 years although rates remain higher than those for White, non-Hispanics. For AI/AN males, colon, lung, and kidney cancer rates have increased and of these, only the rate of kidney cancer has remained higher than that of White, non-Hispanics. For AI/AN women, colon, breast, ovarian, and uterine cancer rates have been increasing over the past 25 years, but only the ovarian cancer rate is higher than that for White, non-Hispanics.