Differences in physician utilization between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children.

OBJECTIVE

In the present study, we examined the factors affecting Aboriginal children's visits to a medical practitioner and compared them with non-Aboriginal children.

METHODS

We selected five Aboriginal communities and four neighbouring non-Aboriginal communities, and conducted a door-to-door survey, covering all children born after 1983. Of an initial sample of 1013 children, 896 (response rate 89.92% for non-Aboriginal children and 85.87% for Aboriginal children) completed the questionnaire for analysis.

RESULTS

In all, 896 children of non-mixed lineage with an age range of 0-12 years were collected into the study, including 316 Aborigines and 580 non-Aborigines. A higher percentage of non-Aboriginal children had more national health insurance coverage than Aboriginal children. The ratio of parents using the services of an out of community medical practitioner when their children were sick was higher for Aboriginal parents than for non-Aborigines. Medical injection frequency was higher in Aboriginal children. Linear regression was used to examine the factors affecting the frequency of physician utilization in the preceding month.

CONCLUSION

A lower national health insurance coverage rate, and a higher rate of intramuscular injections for Aboriginal children plus difficulties in access to medical resources due to travel time and travel distance are still major problems for the Aborigines.