Determinants of usual source of care disparities among African American and Caribbean Black men: findings from the National Survey of American Life

Abstract

Purpose: The Aday-Andersen model was used as a framework for investigating the contribution of immigration status (i.e., nativity and acculturation), socioeconomic factors, health care access, health status, and health insurance to usual source of health care (USOC) in a nationally representative sample of African American (n=551) and Caribbean Black men (n=1,217).

Methods: We used the 2001-2003 National Survey of American Life, a nationally representative household survey of non-institutionalized U.S. Blacks to conduct descriptive and logistic regression analyses.

Results: Older age, more health conditions, neighborhood medical clinic access, and health insurance were associated with higher odds of reporting a USOC. Odds were lower for men with lower-middle incomes and poorer mental health status. Having health insurance was associated with higher odds of reporting a USOC for African American men but lower odds among Caribbean Black men. Odds were higher in the presence of more health conditions for African American men than for Caribbean Black men.

Conclusions: Health care reform policies aimed solely at increasing health insurance may not uniformly eliminate USOC disparities disfavoring U.S. and foreign-born non-Hispanic Black men.