Public health reports
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Public health reports · Jul 2005
Disparities in access to care and satisfaction among U.S. children: the roles of race/ethnicity and poverty status.
The study assessed the progress made toward reducing racial and ethnic disparities in access to health care among U.S. children between 1996 and 2000. ⋯ Continued monitoring of racial and ethnic differences is necessary in light of the persistence of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in access to care. Given national goals to achieve equity in health care and eliminate racial/ ethnic disparities in health, greater attention needs to be paid to the interplay of race/ethnicity factors and poverty status in influencing access.
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Public health reports · Jul 2005
Limited english proficiency, primary language at home, and disparities in children's health care: how language barriers are measured matters.
Approximately 3.5 million U.S. schoolchildren are limited in English proficiency (LEP). Disparities in children's health and health care are associated with both LEP and speaking a language other than English at home, but prior research has not examined which of these two measures of language barriers is most useful in examining health care disparities. ⋯ Parental LEP is superior to the primary language spoken at home as a measure of the impact of language barriers on children's health and health care. Individual parental LEP categories are associated with different risks of adverse outcomes in children's health and health care. Consistent data collection on parental English proficiency and referral of LEP parents to English classes by pediatric providers have the potential to contribute toward reduction and elimination of health care disparities for children of LEP parents.