title: Access to and use of asthma health services among Latino children: the Rhode Island-Puerto Rico asthma center study.
abstract: This study determines asthma-related health care access and utilization patterns for Latino children of Puerto Rican and Dominican origin residing in Rhode Island (RI) and Latino children residing in Puerto Rico (Island). Data included 804 families of children with persistent asthma recruited from clinics. Island children were less likely to receive regular asthma care and care from a consistent provider and more likely to have been to the emergency department and hospitalized for asthma than RI children. Island children were 2.33 times more likely to have used the emergency department for asthma compared with RI non-Latino White (NLW) children. Latino children residing in both Island and RI were less likely to have used specialty care and more likely to have had a physician visit for asthma in the past year than RI NLW children. The differences might reflect the effects of the different delivery systems on pediatric health care utilization and asthma management.
authors.affiliation: Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI 02903, USA. bjandasek@lifespan.org
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jandasek
authors.forename: Alexander N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Ortega
authors.forename: Elizabeth L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: McQuaid
authors.forename: Daphne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Koinis-Mitchell
authors.forename: Gregory K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Fritz
authors.forename: Sheryl J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kopel
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Seifer
authors.forename: Robert B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Glorisa
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Canino
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001249:Asthma / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004293:Dominican Republic / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011647:Puerto Rico; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012237:Rhode Island