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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Allyson Gail Hall, PhD1, Dora L. Hughes, MD, MPH2, and Karen Scott Collins, MD, MPH2. (1) United Hospital Fund, Empire State Building, 350 Fifth Avenue, 23rd Floor, New York, NY 10118, 212-494-0749, ahall@uhfnyc.org, (2) The Commonwealth Fund, 1 East 75 Street, New York, NY 10021
Methods: The Commonwealth Fund 2001 Healthcare Quality Survey, a national survey of 6722 adults with over-samples of 669 Asian American, 1037 African American and 1153 Hispanic adults was fielded between May and November 2001. This telephone random digit-dial survey explored various aspects of health and health care including utilization, patient experiences, health beliefs and health status. Bivariate analyses compared the health care experiences of foreign born persons (FB) to U.S. born persons
Findings: Immigrants receive a lower quality of care compared to the U.S. born. For example: • Although the foreign born were more likely to rate their health status as fair or poor, they were less likely to receive preventive care, physician counseling and chronic disease care. • FB persons are, however, less likely to engage in risky health behaviors such as smoking: 12% of the FB said they are regular smokers compared to 20% of the US born. • FB persons reported more problems with communication, health literacy and were generally more likely to be dissatisfied with overall care: 64% of foreign born persons said it is very easy to read and understand instructions on a prescription compared to 81% of the US born. • FB persons reported less involvement in decision-making and less time with their doctor than they wanted.
Differences in health beliefs are noteworthy. FB persons were more likely to agree that staying healthy is a matter of luck (25% vs.14%). Furthermore, 34 percent of the FB believe it is better to take care of yourself rather than go to a doctor, compared to 18 percent of the US born.
Conclusions: Overall, immigrants are more likely to have a negative health care experience compared to people born in the U.S. Capitalizing on positive aspects of the health of foreign born persons, such as their lower propensity to engage in risky health behaviors, may be one approach to improving the quality of care delivered to diverse groups.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Minority Research, Health Care Quality
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.