IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v69y2009i8p1261-1271.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contextual effects on health care access among immigrants: Lessons from three ethnic communities in Hawaii

Author

Listed:
  • Choi, Jin Young

Abstract

Immigrant health care is the product of the dynamic interaction between societal factors and the individual's socio-economic and cultural characteristics. Our knowledge about immigrant health care, however, has been limited to individual characteristics, without paying attention to the social context in which immigrants reside. This paper explores the effects of social contexts on access to health care among recent immigrants. As a natural experiment, it compares health care experiences of three immigrant groups in Hawaii - Filipinos, Koreans, and Marshallese - who are situated in different social contexts including immigrant health policy, ethnic community, and individual networks. Through household surveys conducted between October 2005 and January 2006, information of 378 recent immigrant adults on health care access, health insurance status, socio-demographic characteristics, linguistic and cultural factors, health status, ethnic community social capital, and social networks was obtained. The results of analyses show that Marshallese respondents have better access to health care than the other two groups, in spite of their lowest socioeconomic status. The high insurance rate of the Marshallese, mainly associated with a state health policy that provides health insurance assistance for the Marshallese, is the major contributor of their greater health care access. While Filipino immigrants do not benefit from state insurance assistance, high levels of health care resources and social capital within the Filipino community enable them to have significantly better health care access than Koreans, who have higher income and educational attainment. Interestingly, the advanced family/kinship networks are associated with better levels of immigrant health care access, while the increase of co-ethnic friend networks is related to lower access to health care. This study implies that restoration of immigrants' eligibility for public health insurance assistance, development of health care resources and social capital within ethnic communities, and mobilization of immigrant networks would be effective starting points to improve health care access among immigrants.

Suggested Citation

  • Choi, Jin Young, 2009. "Contextual effects on health care access among immigrants: Lessons from three ethnic communities in Hawaii," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 1261-1271, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:69:y:2009:i:8:p:1261-1271
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(09)00516-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kawachi, I. & Kennedy, B.P. & Glass, R., 1999. "Social capital and self-rated health: A contextual analysis," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(8), pages 1187-1193.
    2. Macintyre, Sally & Ellaway, Anne & Cummins, Steven, 2002. "Place effects on health: how can we conceptualise, operationalise and measure them?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 125-139, July.
    3. Hawe, Penelope & Shiell, Alan, 2000. "Social capital and health promotion: a review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 871-885, September.
    4. Zhang, Jinjin & Verhoef, Marja J., 2002. "Illness management strategies among Chinese immigrants living with arthritis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(10), pages 1795-1802, November.
    5. Campbell, Catherine & McLean, Carl, 2002. "Ethnic identities, social capital and health inequalities: factors shaping African-Caribbean participation in local community networks in the UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(4), pages 643-657, August.
    6. Wang, Lu & Rosenberg, Mark & Lo, Lucia, 2008. "Ethnicity and utilization of family physicians: A case study of Mainland Chinese immigrants in Toronto, Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(9), pages 1410-1422, November.
    7. Thamer, M. & Richard, C. & Casebeer, A.W. & Ray, N.F., 1997. "Health insurance coverage among foreign-born US residents: The impact of race, ethnicity, and length of residence," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(1), pages 96-102.
    8. Veenstra, Gerry & Luginaah, Isaac & Wakefield, Sarah & Birch, Stephen & Eyles, John & Elliott, Susan, 2005. "Who you know, where you live: social capital, neighbourhood and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(12), pages 2799-2818, June.
    9. Ell, Kathleen, 1996. "Social networks, social support and coping with serious illness: The family connection," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 173-183, January.
    10. Carrasquillo, O. & Carrasquillo, A.I. & Shea, S., 2000. "Health insurance coverage of immigrants living in the United States: Differences by citizenship status and country of origin," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 90(6), pages 917-923.
    11. Kennelly, Brendan & O'Shea, Eamon & Garvey, Eoghan, 2003. "Social capital, life expectancy and mortality: a cross-national examination," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(12), pages 2367-2377, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tetine Sentell & Joy Agner & Ruth Pitt & James Davis & Mary Guo & Elizabeth McFarlane, 2020. "Considering Health Literacy, Health Decision Making, and Health Communication in the Social Networks of Vulnerable New Mothers in Hawai‘i: A Pilot Feasibility Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Martine AUDIBERT & Jean-Yves LE HESRAN & Stéphanie DOS SANTOS & Hervé LAFARGE & Richard LALOU & Georges Karna KONE, 2013. "Use of health care among the urban poor in Africa: Does the neighbourhood have an impact?," Working Papers 201319, CERDI.
    3. Philip Q. Yang & Shann Hwa Hwang, 2016. "Explaining Immigrant Health Service Utilization," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(2), pages 21582440166, May.
    4. Georges Kone & Richard Lalou & Martine Audibert & Hervé Lafarge & Stéphanie dos Santos & Jean-Yves Le Hesran, 2013. "Use of health care among the urban poor in Africa: Does the neighbourhood have an impact?," CERDI Working papers halshs-00878946, HAL.
    5. Viladrich, Anahí, 2012. "Beyond welfare reform: Reframing undocumented immigrants’ entitlement to health care in the United States, a critical review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(6), pages 822-829.
    6. Danan Gu & Haiyan Zhu & Ming Wen, 2015. "Neighborhood-health links: Differences between rural-to-urban migrants and natives in Shanghai," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 33(17), pages 499-524.
    7. Solome Kiribakka Bakeera & George Pariyo & Max Petzold & Sandro Galea & Wamala SP, 2012. "Associations between Socioeconomic Factors and Social Capital amongst Child Caregivers in Eastern Uganda," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 2, pages 51-62, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Snelgrove, John W. & Pikhart, Hynek & Stafford, Mai, 2009. "A multilevel analysis of social capital and self-rated health: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 1993-2001, June.
    2. De Clercq, B. & Vyncke, V. & Hublet, A. & Elgar, F.J. & Ravens-Sieberer, U. & Currie, C. & Hooghe, M. & Ieven, A. & Maes, L., 2012. "Social capital and social inequality in adolescents’ health in 601 Flemish communities: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 202-210.
    3. Fiorillo, Damiano & Sabatini, Fabio, 2015. "Structural social capital and health in Italy," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 129-142.
    4. Sirven, Nicolas & Debrand, Thierry, 2008. "Social participation and healthy ageing: An international comparison using SHARE data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2017-2026, December.
    5. Engström, Karin & Mattsson, Fredrik & Järleborg, Anders & Hallqvist, Johan, 2008. "Contextual social capital as a risk factor for poor self-rated health: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2268-2280, June.
    6. Jang, Sou Hyun, 2016. "First-generation Korean immigrants’ barriers to healthcare and their coping strategies in the US," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 93-100.
    7. Poortinga, Wouter, 2006. "Social relations or social capital? Individual and community health effects of bonding social capital," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 255-270, July.
    8. Stavros Petrou & Emil Kupek, 2008. "Social capital and its relationship with measures of health status: evidence from the Health Survey for England 2003," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(1), pages 127-143, January.
    9. Shiell, Alan & Hawe, Penelope & Kavanagh, Shane, 2020. "Evidence suggests a need to rethink social capital and social capital interventions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    10. Bisung, Elijah & Elliott, Susan J., 2014. "Toward a social capital based framework for understanding the water-health nexus," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 194-200.
    11. James H. Spencer & Katherine Irwin & Karen N. Umemoto & Orlando Garcia-Santiago & Stephanie T. Nishimura & Earl S. Hishinuma & Soojean Choi-Misailidis, 2009. "Exploring the Hypothesis of Ethnic Practice as Social Capital: Violence Among Asian/Pacific Islander Youth in Hawaii," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 55(6), pages 506-524, November.
    12. Peter Kitchen & Allison Williams & Dylan Simone, 2012. "Measuring Social Capital in Hamilton, Ontario," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 108(2), pages 215-238, September.
    13. Philip Q. Yang & Shann Hwa Hwang, 2016. "Explaining Immigrant Health Service Utilization," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(2), pages 21582440166, May.
    14. McNeill, Lorna Haughton & Kreuter, Matthew W. & Subramanian, S.V., 2006. "Social Environment and Physical activity: A review of concepts and evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 1011-1022, August.
    15. Sirven, Nicolas, 2006. "Endogenous social capital and self-rated health: Cross-sectional data from rural areas of Madagascar," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1489-1502, September.
    16. Nauenberg, Eric & Laporte, Audrey & Shen, Leilei, 2011. "Social capital, community size and utilization of health services: A lagged analysis," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 38-46.
    17. Rojas, Yerko & Carlson, Per, 2006. "The stratification of social capital and its consequences for self-rated health in Taganrog, Russia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(11), pages 2732-2741, June.
    18. Riumallo-Herl, Carlos Javier & Kawachi, Ichiro & Avendano, Mauricio, 2014. "Social capital, mental health and biomarkers in Chile: Assessing the effects of social capital in a middle-income country," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 47-58.
    19. Sabatini, Fabio, 2014. "The relationship between happiness and health: Evidence from Italy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 178-187.
    20. Schultz, Jennifer & O'Brien, A. Maureen & Tadesse, Bedassa, 2008. "Social capital and self-rated health: Results from the US 2006 social capital survey of one community," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(4), pages 606-617, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:69:y:2009:i:8:p:1261-1271. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.