Access to care and utilization of preventive services by multiple-race population in the United States

Background: Preventive care services have the potential to enable U.S. adults to live longer, healthier lives by reducing the incidence and prevalence of illness.  Having health insurance is associated with greater utilization of preventive services. The 2010 U.S. Census showed that from 2000-2010 people reporting multiple races grew 32.0% whereas those reporting a single race grew only 9.2%. This poster highlights the impact access to health care has on this growing population.

Methods: Analyzed 45 measures from the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports (NHQR-DR), 19 access measures and 26 preventive care measures. Significant differences between multiple-race individuals and Whites for most recent year and trends over time (at least 4 data years) require a minimum relative difference of 10% between the two groups, and statistical significance with p-value <0.05. Trends are analyzed for multiple-race individuals only and assessed using weighted least squares regression of change where average annual rate of change is ≥1% per year and statistically significant p-value <0.10  Baseline year and most current year are compared to assess disparity trends.

Findings:

Preventive Care 2002-2012:

Multiple-race individuals showed improvement for 50% (13 of 26) of preventive measures including adults age 65 and over who received influenza vaccination in the last 12 months.  Eight percent (2 of 26) of preventive care measures worsened including children who received advice about the negative impact of smoking in the home.

Only 8% (2 of 26) of preventive measures showed a narrowing of gap between multiple-race individuals and Whites. 

Access to Care 2001-2012:

Multiple-race individuals showed improvement for 21% (4 of 19) of the  access to care measures including people under age 65 who were uninsured all year.  No access to care measure got worse during the time period analyzed.

Access measures showed a narrowing of gap between multiple-race individuals and Whites for 10% (2 of 19) of measures. 

Conclusion: Multiple-race individuals, one of the fastest growing populations in the U.S., show some improvement in both access to care and utilization of preventive services.  Disparities, however, still exist between multiple-race individuals and Whites.  Trends show most measures are not improving and the disparities gap is not decreasing.  Efforts to increase access to care and quality of care including preventive services for this rapidly growing population could have significant impact on overall health care cost and quality.