Health status and health service access and use among children in U.S. immigrant families

Z.J. Huang, S.M. Yu and R. Ledsky

American Journal of Public Health, 2006, vol. 96, issue 4, 634-640

Abstract: Objectives. We examined the health status and patterns of health care use of children in US immigrant families. Methods. Data from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families were used to create 3 subgroups of immigrant children: US-born children with noncitizen parents, foreign-born children who were naturalized US citizens, and foreign-born children with noncitizen parents. Chi-square and logistic regression analyses were used to examine relationships between immigrant status and health access variables. Subgroup analyses were conducted with low-income families. Results. Foreign-born noncitizen children were 4 times more likely than children from native families to lack health insurance coverage and to have not visited a mental health specialist in the preceding year. They were 40% and 80% more likely to have not visited a doctor or dentist in the previous year and twice as likely to lack a usual source of care. US-born children with noncitizen parents were also at a disadvantage in many of these aspects of care. Conclusions. We found that, overall, children from immigrant families were in worse physical health than children from non-immigrant families and used health care services at a significantly lower frequency.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2004.049791

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2004.049791_4

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2004.049791

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().