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Health Insurance Moderates the Association Between Immigrant Length of Stay and Health Status

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Abstract

Previous studies reported that immigrants’ health worsens with acculturation to US lifestyle; however, role of health insurance has not been investigated. We used cross-sectional National Immigrant Survey (n = 6,381) to examine the potential moderating effect of health insurance on the association between time in the US and self reported changes in health (comparing health status before and after immigration) and current health status. Separate logistic regression models were fit to assess these associations among insured and uninsured immigrants, adjusting for covariates. Among uninsured immigrants there was a stronger negative association between length of stay and health, compared to immigrants with health insurance. Insured immigrants were almost two times more likely than uninsured immigrants to have received preventive screenings, such as a Pap smear or prostate exam. This suggests that health insurance may somewhat attenuate this association, and is an important resource for US immigrants.

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Acknowledgments

Shenassa was supported by grant R40MC03600–01–00 from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Department of Health and Human Services.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Maryland School of Public Health, 2234C SPH Bldg, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Sunmin Lee, Allison O’Neill, Lynn Scully & Edmond Shenassa

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Julie Park

  3. Department of Family Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Edmond Shenassa

Authors
  1. Sunmin Lee
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  2. Allison O’Neill
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  3. Julie Park
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  4. Lynn Scully
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  5. Edmond Shenassa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sunmin Lee.

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Lee, S., O’Neill, A., Park, J. et al. Health Insurance Moderates the Association Between Immigrant Length of Stay and Health Status. J Immigrant Minority Health 14, 345–349 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-010-9411-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-010-9411-z

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