title: Health insurance moderates the association between immigrant length of stay and health status.
abstract: Previous studies reported that immigrants’ health worsens with acculturation to US lifestyle; however, role of health insurance has not been investigated. We used crosssectional National Immigrant Survey (n = 6,381) to examine the potential moderating effect of health insurance on the association between time in the US and self reported changes in health (comparing health status before and after immigration)and current health status. Separate logistic regression models were fit to assess these associations among insured and uninsured immigrants, adjusting for covariates. Among uninsured immigrants there was a stronger negative association between length of stay and health, compared to immigrants with health insurance. Insured immigrants were almost two times more likely than uninsured immigrants to have received preventive screenings, such as a Pap smear or prostate exam. This suggests that health insurance may somewhat attenuate this association, and is an important resource for US immigrants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Maryland School of Public Health, College Park, MD 20742, USA. sunmin@umd.edu
authors.forename: Sunmin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: O'Neill
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Scully
authors.forename: Edmond
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Shenassa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States