Toward an Understanding of Health Care Delay Among Ethnic Minorities: Examining Health Care Behaviors Among Military Young-Adult Males

摘要

The importance of eliminating health disparities in the United States has become a top priority in public health efforts. Ethnic minorities have historically different experiences and access to health care services that may influence their current attitudes and health behaviors. The military provides a unique opportunity to address these important questions. Military personnel are a racially diverse sample that has universal access to quality health care thereby removing access as one of the major barriers to utilization and controlling for SES. The purpose of this study was to compare delay in treatment seeking behaviors as related to knowledge of disease among African American, Hispanic American, and Caucasian active duty enlisted personnel. Two hundred ninetyfive enlisted males personnel (X=22.86 years; SD= 4.14) from a command within the continental U.S. completed the Illness Attitudes Scale (IAS; Kellner, 1986) to measure the participant's overall health-related worries and concerns, the Knowledge of Cancer Warning Signs inventory (KCWSI; Berman & Wandersman, 1991), and a number of questions developed to evaluate diabetes knowledge. Health care rules and behaviors were also examined by a series of health care vignettes that described a pattern of symptoms for acute as well as chronic problems and the respondent indicated their typical response. Results indicated that there were no differences in knowledge of cancer (F (2, 258)=.29, p = .29) and diabetes (F (2, 272) = .19, p = .83) symptoms among the racial groups. Also, there were no differences in treatment experience in the medical setting among the racial groups (F (3, 283) = .22, p = .88). However, differences in concern about bodily symptoms were found between minorities and Caucasians, with ethnic minorities showing higher concern about bodily symptoms, worry about illnesses, and concern about dise.