title: Ethnic and Indigenous access to early childhood healthcare services in Australia: parents' perceived unmet needs and related barriers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the parents' perceived unmet needs in early childhood healthcare services among Indigenous, non-English-speaking background (NESB) and English-speaking background (ESB) children and the related barriers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data was from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Rao-Scott chi-square was used to examine the level of parents' perceived unmet needs in three ethnic groups in early childhood healthcare services over a 12 month period. Survey logistic regression was used to assess the association between the groups of infants and the barriers to utilisation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ten per cent of Australian infants have at least one parents' perceived unmet need in early childhood healthcare services. NESB (15.3%) and Indigenous (15.1%) infants were more likely than ESB infants (9.9%, p<0.001) to have parents' perceived unmet needs in health care services. The barriers to service access include cost, transport problems, child care difficulties, service availability and family reasons. Parents of ESB infants were more likely to cite operating hours as the major barrier to accessing services.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There were parents' perceived unmet needs in a number of health services for all Australian infants, but at different levels by Indigenous, NESB and ESB groups. The most common barrier to services utilisation related to cost or private health insurance, availability and accessibility of service provision and other socioeconomic issues.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Policy attention and operational changes are required to improve equity in accessing early childhood services, as well as to improve the overall access to healthcare services for all Australian infants.
authors.affiliation: The Simpson Centre for Health Services Research, University of New South Wales. Lixin.Ou@sswahs.nsw.gov.au
authors.forename: Lixin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ou
authors.forename: Jack
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Garrett
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hillman
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003144:Communication Barriers; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires