Understanding observed and unobserved health care access and utilization disparities among US Latino adults.
This study hypothesizes that differences in health care access and utilization exist across Latino adults (>18 years), with U.S. Latino adults of Mexican ancestry demonstrating the worst patterns of access and utilization. The analyses use the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data from 1999 to 2007 (N = 33,908). The authors first estimate the disparities in health care access and utilization among different categories of Latinos. They also implement Blinder-Oaxaca techniques to decompose disparities into observed and unobserved components, comparing Latinos of Mexican ancestry with non-Mexican Latinos. Latinos of Mexican ancestry consistently demonstrate lower health care access and utilization patterns than non-Mexican Latinos. Health insurance and region of residence were the most important factors that explained observable differences. In contrast, language and citizenship status were relatively unimportant. Although a significant share of these disparities may be explained by observed characteristics, disparities because of unobserved heterogeneity among the different Latino cohorts are also considerable.
Vargas Bustamante
Arturo
A
University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. avb@ucla.edu
Fang
Hai
H
Rizzo
John A
JA
Ortega
Alexander N
AN
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004493:Education; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006304:Health Status; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D011203:Poverty; D014481:United States