Racial and ethnic disparities in early childhood health and health care.
BACKGROUND
Racial/ethnic disparities in health care have received much national attention recently, but few studies have focused on disparities among children. We studied disparities in early childhood health and health care.


METHODS
We analyzed data for 2608 children, 4 to 35 months of age, from the 2000 National Survey of Early Childhood Health, a nationwide household survey. The overall response rate was 65.6%. Survey questions addressed health, health care, and interactions with health care providers.


RESULTS
Hispanic and black children were significantly less likely than whites to be in excellent/very good health (72%, 79%, and 90%, respectively) and were more likely to be uninsured (31%, 18%, and 9%, respectively). Only 60% of Hispanic and 77% of black parents would recommend their child's provider to others, compared with 84% of white parents. Minority parents more often reported that providers never or only sometimes understood their child-rearing preferences, and Hispanic parents most often reported that providers never or only sometimes understood their child's needs. Minority parents more often were asked about violence, smoking, drinking, and drug use. Hispanic and black parents averaged significantly fewer telephone calls to doctors' offices than did whites (2.0, 3.1, and 4.3 calls, respectively). Providers significantly less often referred Hispanic and black children to specialists (11% and 17%, respectively, compared with 22% for whites). Most disparities persisted in multivariate analyses, and several disparities were found between children with parents who completed surveys in Spanish and those with parents who completed surveys in English.


CONCLUSIONS
Young minority children experience multiple disparities in health status, insurance coverage, topics discussed during pediatric visits, parents feeling understood by providers, parental satisfaction, and referrals to specialists.
Flores
Glenn
G
Center for the Advancement of Underserved Children, Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Rd, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA. gflores@mail.mcw.edu
Olson
Lynn
L
Tomany-Korman
Sandra C
SC
D001741:Black or African American; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007348:Insurance, Health; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010290:Parents; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D044465:White People