Variations in African American and Non-Hispanic White Children's Health Care Utilization

A multigroup structural equation model was used to investigate the processes underlying health care use between Black and White children. Data from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), a computer-assisted telephone survey, were used. The sample for this research consisted of 28,064 Black and White children, ages 4 to 11 years, drawn from the larger pool of children whose families participated in the survey. Results showed that the processes underlying health care use were similar for Blacks and Whites; however, there were some differences in factor loadings between Blacks and Whites. Furthermore, there were differences between Blacks and Whites in the effects of (a) family economic resources on health problems, (b) health problems and access to care on parental distress, and (c) access to care and health problems on prevention- and curative-based use. No interaction effects were found for Blacks and Whites in the associations between (a) parental distress, and satisfaction with physician interaction and health care usage, and (b) satisfaction with physician interactions and health care utilization.