Access to preventive services for adults of Mexican origin.
Immigrants arrive in the U.S. with better than average health, which declines over time. Clinical preventive services can prevent or delay some of that decline, but little research in this area focuses specifically on Mexican immigrants who are the largest contemporary immigrant group. This article finds that recent Mexican immigrants were the least likely to receive preventive care services, even after adjusting for sociodemographic differences in the population. Long-stay Mexican immigrants were more similar to U.S.-born Mexican Americans in preventive service use rates, who in turn had lower rates than U.S.-born non-Latino whites. Monolingual Spanish speaking Mexican immigrants were the least likely to have obtained preventive services. Having no usual source of care is the strongest predictor of the underuse. The persistent gap in preventive services across all subgroups of adults of Mexican origin suggests structural barriers to their preventive care.
Wallace
Steven P
SP
UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, School of Public Health, University of California, 10960 Wilshire Blvd #1550, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA. swallace@ucla.edu
Gutiérrez
Verónica F
VF
Castañeda
Xóchitl
X
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors