Ethnic group response to preventive health education.

Using the ratio of preventive visits to episodic visits as an index of health care utilization in response to an education campaign which emphasized the value of prevention, we analyzed the response of white, Mexican-American, and black subjects in a community health center. We found that: (1) whites make a relatively larger proportion of preventive care visits than Mexican-Americans, who made proportionately more preventive health care visits than blacks. The difference between whites and blacks was statistically significant (p less than .05). (2) When socioeconomic levels were held constant, as measured by insurance categories, no ethnic differences in preventive vs episodic health care visits were found. (3) On the other hand significant differences in such health care behavior emerged when indices of family structure and employment were isolated. Mexican-Americans seek proportionately less preventive care in families in which one parent is absent and no adult is employed. In contrast, blacks seek proportionately less preventive care in families in which both parents are present at at least one adult is employed.