More El Pasoans don't have health insurance and are less likely to take preventive health-care measures, a study released today by the Center for Border Health Research indicates.

As a consequence, more money is spent on emergency care, costing patients and government entities more, experts said.

Border Health Research interviewed 653 adult El Paso County residents for the 2005 How Healthy Are We report to develop an understanding of health conditions and personal behaviors that affect health in El Paso County.

The study found that about 40 percent of El Pasoans in 2005 said they had no health insurance, an increase from 32 percent in 1996. Nearly 29 percent in the state and about 15 percent in the nation lack health coverage.

Among those uninsured in El Paso is Kristian Caballero, a 20-year-old University of Texas at El Paso student, who said it's been about five years since she had health insurance.

When she gets sick, she said, she calls a friend in the health-care industry, then goes to Juárez to buy medicines, such as antibiotics. She said she hasn't sought a doctor's advice for problems such as heart disease or diabetes.

"Actually, subconsciously I'm worried about those things all the time, but because I'm so occupied with my daily routine I just try to ignore those things," she said.

The report by the Center for Border Health Research coincides with the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a national telephone health survey created in the early 1980s by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the same health topics.

Jon Law, assistant director of the Center for Border Health Research in El Paso, said the high number of uninsured people leads to lack of preventive care for El Pasoans and potentially an underestimation of the prevalence of certain diseases.

Law singled out diagnoses of high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes. People without health insurance were less likely to have been checked for any of those diseases, he said.

Fifty-five percent of El Paso respondents said they had their cholesterol levels checked in the past five years, compared with 66 percent in the state and 73 percent in the nation, the study found. Forty percent of those surveyed in 2005 said they had never had their cholesterol level checked, up from 29 percent in 1996.

While the number of El Pasoans who said they have been diagnosed with diabetes is about on par with the nation at a little more than 7 percent, Law estimates a higher number in El Paso have the disease but have not been tested.

Dr. David Palafox, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, said easy access to medicines in Juárez without a prescription or under proper medical supervision hurts overall health in El Paso County.

In addition, Palafox said, young people might not learn good dietary and exercise habits, and they may pick up bad health-care habits from their parents as well.

"If you don't have insurance and you don't have money, then seeing a doctor is not a thing they request," he said. "Instead of being able to prevent something, they wait until they're really sick and have to go to the hospital to be admitted."

Other statistics from the 2005 How Healthy Are We survey by the Center for Border Health Research:

• 18 percent of El Pasoans said they had five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day, compared with 23 percent in Texas and the nation.

• 16 percent of El Pasoans said they had five or more drinks on one occasion in the past 30 days, compared with 14 percent in both Texas and the nation.

• 24 percent of El Pasoans said they had a fair or poor perception of general health, compared with 20 percent in Texas and 15 percent in the nation.

• 46 percent of El Pasoans said they met the recommended level of physical activity, compared with 47 percent in Texas and 49 percent in the nation.