 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Vilma Enriquez-Haass, MPH, School of Public Health/Community Health Sciences, UCLA, 10925 Le Conte Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, 3310 825 4321, veh@ucla.edu, Nadereh Pourat, PhD, Department of Health Services Research, University of California, Los Angeles, 123 Ocean Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 12345, Steven P. Wallace, PHD, UCLA Center For Health Policy Research, 10911 Weyburn Avenue Suite 3000, Los Angeles, CA 90024-2887, and Alek Sripipatana, MPH, Community Health Sciences, UCLA School of Public Health, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
Description: Measures of health status are essential to address the needs of older minority populations. This study provides health indicators that examine the relationship between socioeconomic factors, status, access to health services and health status for older Latinos, African Americans, Asian/Pacific Islanders and non-Latino Whites in California.
Methodology: The data consists of structured interviews from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey. Analysis include bivariate statistics that examine the relationship between health status, race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic factors, access to health services for Latinos (N=474), African Americans (N=323), Asian/Pacific Islanders (N=273) and Non-Hispanic Whites (N=4401) age 65 and older residing in California.
Results: The analysis indicates that older minorities tend to have lower health status when compared to non-Latino Whites. African Americans and Latinos report greater poverty rates, greater morbidity and greater barriers to health services. In addition, minority elderly are less likely to utilize preventive health services and are less likely to report prevalence of acute conditions like cardiovascular disease. This paper discusses the health disparities and their policy implications.
Learning objective: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to identify four main factors that affect the health status of older minority groups and be able to compare them to non-Latino Whites.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Access to Health Care, Minority Health
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.