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Parental Nativity is an Important Factor Associated with Where Children Usually Go for Health Care

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Abstract

Purpose Few studies of children’s access to care account for the independent effects of parental immigration characteristics. To address this gap in knowledge, we examine the association between parental nativity and where children usually obtain health care. Data source The 2002 National Survey of America’s Families (N = 34,332). Results Fourteen percent of the sampled children had only foreign-born parents. Most of the sampled children used physician’s offices or HMOs (69%) and clinics or other hospital outpatient settings (24%) as usual sites for health care; few used hospital emergency departments or other care providers (1.4%). After adjusting for confounders, using multinomial logistic regression, both citizen [OR = 1.92 (1.44–2.56)] and non-citizen [OR = 5.21 (3.33–8.15)] children with foreign-born parents were more likely to lack a usual site for health care, compared to children with at least one US-born parent—regardless of the mother’s citizenship and duration of stay in the US. After accounting for parental nativity, lack of citizenship and shorter durations of US stay among mothers were associated with children’s greater use of public clinics or other hospital outpatient settings, rather than physician’s offices or HMOs. The effect of parental nativity persisted for minority, but not white, children; however, non-citizen children lacked a usual site for health care regardless of their race and ethnicity. Conclusion The immigration characteristics of parents are important to disparities in where children usually go for health care. These results suggest that increasing the “biomedical acculturation” of immigrant mothers may improve access to care for their children.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Health Services Research Administration and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau for this study (Award No. R40MC05470A0-01-01). I also gratefully acknowledge the tireless input of my co-authors in the development of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Maternal and Child Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Andrea C. Weathers

  2. UNC School of Public Health, 402A Rosenau Hall, CB# 7445, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7445, USA

    Andrea C. Weathers

  3. Division of Health Social and Economic Research, Research Triangle Institute International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA

    Scott P. Novak

  4. Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Narayan Sastry

  5. Department of Health Policy and Administration, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Edward C. Norton

Authors
  1. Andrea C. Weathers
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  2. Scott P. Novak
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  3. Narayan Sastry
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  4. Edward C. Norton
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Correspondence to Andrea C. Weathers.

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Footnote of author’s publication

(16) Weathers A, Norton E, Sastry N, Sonnefield N. The Role of Caretaker Migration in Health and Access to Care for Children of Immigrants: Findings from the National Survey of America’s Families. 2006 Pediatric Academic Societies. San Francisco California [2914.449].

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Weathers, A.C., Novak, S.P., Sastry, N. et al. Parental Nativity is an Important Factor Associated with Where Children Usually Go for Health Care. Matern Child Health J 12, 499–508 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-007-0278-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-007-0278-0

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