title: Does being an immigrant make a difference in seeking physician services?
abstract: The current study investigated the effects of immigration status, acculturation, and health beliefs on the use of preventive and non-preventive visits, through use of a nationally representative sample of U.S.-born and foreign-born adults. U.S.-born adults were found to have significantly more preventive and non-preventive visits than immigrants. The effects on predicting preventive visits of education, having a usual source of care, and having other public insurance were stronger among immigrants than among the U.S.-born. Health confidence and believing in the need for health insurance significantly predicted the numbers of both preventive and non-preventive visits among the U.S.-born but correlated little with either type of visit among immigrants. Among immigrant adults, acculturation affected only the number of preventive visits. The lower utilization of both preventive and non-preventive care among immigrants may be associated with a combination of better health and more limited enabling resources.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX 79430-8161, USA. tom.xu@ttuhsc.edu
authors.forename: Ke Tom
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Tyrone F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Borders
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States