Emily Walton and Denise L. Anthony
Racial and ethnic minorities utilize less healthcare than their similarly situated white counterparts in the United States, resulting in speculation that these actions may stem in…
Abstract
Racial and ethnic minorities utilize less healthcare than their similarly situated white counterparts in the United States, resulting in speculation that these actions may stem in part from less desire for care. In order to adequately understand the role of care-seeking for racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, we must fully and systematically consider the complex set of social factors that influence healthcare seeking and use.
Data for this study come from a 2005 national survey of community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries (N = 2,138). We examine racial and ethnic variation in intentions to seek care, grounding our analyses in the behavioral model of healthcare utilization. Our analysis consists of a series of nested multivariate logistic regression models that follow the sequencing of the behavioral model while including additional social factors.
We find that Latino, Black, and Native American older adults express greater preferences for seeking healthcare compared to whites. Worrying about one’s health, having skepticism toward doctors in general, and living in a small city rather than a Metropolitan Area, but not health need, socioeconomic status, or healthcare system characteristics, explain some of the racial and ethnic variation in care-seeking preferences. Overall, we show that even after comprehensively accounting for factors known to influence disparities in utilization, elderly racial and ethnic minorities express greater desire to seek care than whites.
We suggest that future research examine social factors such as unmeasured wealth differences, cultural frameworks, and role identities in healthcare interactions in order to understand differences in care-seeking and, importantly, the relationship between care-seeking and disparities in utilization.
This study represents a systematic analysis of the ways individual, social, and structural context may account for racial and ethnic differences in seeking medical care. We build on healthcare seeking literature by including more comprehensive measures of social relationships, healthcare and system-level characteristics, and exploring a wide variety of health beliefs and expectations. Further, our study investigates care seeking among multiple understudied racial and ethnic groups. We find that racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to say they would seek healthcare than whites, suggesting that guidelines promoting the elicitation and understanding of patient preferences in the context of the clinical interaction is an important step toward reducing utilization disparities. These findings also underscore the notion that health policy should go further to address the broader social factors relating to care-seeking in the first place.
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Mr L.J.Anthony, FLA, has been appointed to a new post of Assistant Director (Services) on the staff of Aslib and takes up his appointment at the beginning of October. Mrs Sauvee…
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Mr L.J.Anthony, FLA, has been appointed to a new post of Assistant Director (Services) on the staff of Aslib and takes up his appointment at the beginning of October. Mrs Sauvee has kindly agreed to remain at work until he takes over. Mr Anthony is well known to the membership as the Librarian and Head of Documentation Services of the Culham Laboratory of the UK Atomic Energy Authority and as the former Deputy Librarian at Harwell; members of longer standing will remember him as Assistant Director at Aslib in 1954–55, when the consultancy service and first research activities were being established, and previously as Information Officer at British Telecom‐munications Research Ltd.
Downloading and uploading offer labour‐saving advantages and are now accepted as useful options in online searching. All aspects are here considered, from recent technical…
Abstract
Downloading and uploading offer labour‐saving advantages and are now accepted as useful options in online searching. All aspects are here considered, from recent technical advances, applications and legal attitudes. There is also a review of current software for downloading. Recent developments mean a trend to higher internal memory and storage capacity, and greater transmission speeds. Packages now offer access to more than one host, give maximum assistance to the user without being menu‐driven and incorporate the latest developments in artificial intelligence. Disadvantages are in the length of time involved in the process and the fact that the legal issue of copyright has not yet been finalised. Database producers have turned to licensing under contract law, but there is still need to rely on user ethics, and the need for a standard permissions form is highlighted.
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L.J. ANTHONY and J.E. HAILSTONE
Scientific and technical periodicals and other serial publications are purchased by the Main Library at Harwell for its own collections and for those of twenty‐two divisional…
Abstract
Scientific and technical periodicals and other serial publications are purchased by the Main Library at Harwell for its own collections and for those of twenty‐two divisional libraries. Subscriptions are placed through a bookseller for all serials other than Government publications which are purchased direct from HMSO. In addition, a number of journals are presented to the library from various sources. All serial publications are recorded in the library catalogues and individual copies are checked in by the Main Library using conventional visible index equipment. For quick reference a strip index of holdings and locations is kept in the Reading Room of the library.
THE greatly increased interest in historical studies since the second world war has been, I hope, a welcome challenge to librarians, but it has been very difficult to meet it…
Abstract
THE greatly increased interest in historical studies since the second world war has been, I hope, a welcome challenge to librarians, but it has been very difficult to meet it. That the librarians of our new universities should have had little research material to offer was only to be expected. Unfortunately, research scholars have discovered that our older libraries were also deficient, that source materials had either not been purchased, in the years when they were readily available, or had been acquired only to be discarded at a later date. Recently, therefore, both old libraries and new have found themselves in competition for a small and dwindling supply of out‐of‐print publications.
The most obvious symptom of the most obvious trend in the building of new libraries is the fact that, as yet, no spade has entered the ground of the site on Euston Road, London…
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The most obvious symptom of the most obvious trend in the building of new libraries is the fact that, as yet, no spade has entered the ground of the site on Euston Road, London, upon which the new building for the British Library Reference Division has to be erected. Some twenty years of continued negotiation and discussion finally resulted in the choice of this site. The UK and much more of the world awaits with anticipation what could and should be the major building library of the twentieth century. The planning and design of a library building, however large or small, is, relatively speaking, a major operation, and deserves time, care and patience if the best results are to be produced.
Sir Raymond Streat, C.B.E., Director of The Cotton Board, Manchester, accompanied by Lady Streat. A Vice‐President: F. C. Francis, M.A., F.S.A., Keeper of the Department of…
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Sir Raymond Streat, C.B.E., Director of The Cotton Board, Manchester, accompanied by Lady Streat. A Vice‐President: F. C. Francis, M.A., F.S.A., Keeper of the Department of Printed Books, British Museum. Honorary Treasurer: J. E. Wright, Institution of Electrical Engineers. Honorary Secretary: Mrs. J. Lancaster‐Jones, B.Sc., Science Librarian, British Council. Chairman of Council: Miss Barbara Kyle, Research Worker, Social Sciences Documentation. Director: Leslie Wilson, M.A.
CHAIRMAN: L.J. ANTHONY and ASSISTANT ASLIB DIRECTOR
Miss B.H.J. Sants (British Petroleum) said that the speakers had mentioned progressive ladders of promotion, but in most library and information units the staff were divided into…
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Miss B.H.J. Sants (British Petroleum) said that the speakers had mentioned progressive ladders of promotion, but in most library and information units the staff were divided into professional and non‐professional staff. How did the platform suggest that by pursuing a policy of training aimed at developing the individual's talents one could continue to motivate by job‐satisfaction when the opportunities for promotion were bound to be limited?