Health care use by Hispanic adults: financial vs. non-financial determinants.
The purpose of this article is to assess the relative effects of financial and cultural factors, namely language spoken, on health care use by Hispanic adults. Using a national sample, we examine the determinants of having a usual source of care (USOC), use of physician visits, and likelihood of having blood pressure checked. Multivariate analysis reveals the following: Monolingual Spanish speakers were not significantly different from English speakers for the three dependent variables; having private insurance or Medicaid was positively related to all three dependent variables. We conclude that financial factors--primarily insurance--remain as the paramount barriers to care.
Schur
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Project HOPE Center for Health Affairs, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
Albers
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Berk
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D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007802:Language; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States