Unequal Access: Why Are Some Children Using Hospital-Based Facilities as a Usual Source of Care?

Kelly Holder, Brown University

Objectives: The goal of this study is to determine what predicts child usage of hospital-based facilities (i.e. emergency rooms and hospital outpatient clinics) as a usual source of care. Specifically, I examine the effects of race, ethnicity and several socioeconomic variables that can be divided into predisposing, enabling and need factors. Methods: I combined the 1997 through 2000 National Health Interview Surveys. A precondition for inclusion of the children in this study is that the household respondent must have indicated that usual routine or sick care was made to some type of facility. Results: Preliminary findings suggest that while race and ethnicity are significant predictors of whether or not a child uses hospital-based facilities as a usual source of routine or sick care, most of the effects is explained by other predisposing, enabling and need factors such as type of health insurance, health status and residence in large urban areas.