Online Program

284331
Availability of geriatric care facilities in the community: Variation by the proportion of foreign-born population


Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Sunha Choi, PhD, College of Social Work, The University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Knoxville, TN
Objective. Expanding the previous immigrant health service literature, which has focused heavily on individual-level characteristics, this study examined whether the supply of geriatric care facilities in the community differ by the proportion of foreign-born population at the county level. Contextual factors, such as community-level socioeconomic compositional and resource characteristics, play a significant role in shaping individuals' health service utilization. Methods: This study analyzed the 2009 Area Recourse File and the 2005-2009 American Community Survey (ACS) at the county level (N=3,114). The five-year aggregated ACS sample is designed to facilitate meaningful analyses of smaller areas. The number of stand-alone geriatric care facilities (skilled nursing facilities (SNF), home healthcare agencies (HHA), and hospice) per 100,000 older adults (ages 65+) in each county was calculated to reflect the level of availability of such services. The percentage of foreign-born population was an independent variable. County-level compositional and socioeconomic characteristics were controlled for in the multivariate models.

Results: The percentage of foreign-born to the total population ranged from 0% to 63%. The results indicate that as the proportion of foreign-born population in the county increased, the availability of geriatric care facilities decreased (SNF (b=-0.04, p < .0001) and HHA (b=-0.09, p< .0001)). Conclusion: These discrepancies in the availability of geriatric care facilities in the counties with high proportions of foreign-born individuals will, in turn, affect individual level service utilization among older foreign-born individuals who live in the areas with limited resources.

Learning Areas:

Provision of health care to the public

Learning Objectives:
Assess whether the supply of geriatric care facilities in the community differ by the proportion of foreign-born population at the county level

Keyword(s): Access and Services

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: My primary research interests have involved the topic on access to health care among older adults for the past 10 years.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.