Writing in the September issue of Pediatrics, Dr. Flores, one of the country's foremost experts on multicultural health care issues, sought to identify the risk factors for and consequences of being uninsured in Latino children.
Dr. Flores is professor of pediatrics, epidemiology and health policy at the Medical College of Wisconsin and director of the Center for Advancement of Underserved Children at the Medical College and Children's Hospital.
Latinos are the most uninsured racial/ethnic group of children in the United States, with 22 percent (approximately 3 million) of Latino children less than 18 years old having no health insurance coverage in 2005. This compares with uninsured rates of 7.4% among non-Latino white children, 14.5% among African-Americans and 12.4% among Asians/Pacific Islanders.
Previous research has shown that certain factors that have a high prevalence among Latino children and their families also are associated with greater risks of lacking health insurance.
"It was unclear, however, which specific factors are significantly associated with Latino children's lack of insurance. Our study is the first to comprehensively and simultaneously look at a variety of factors, including immigration status, family income, child age, the number of siblings, parental employment status, duration of parental residence in the US, parental educational attainment and marital status," Dr. Flores said.