Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Pediatric Experiences of Family-Centered Care

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have examined racial and ethnic disparities in the receipt of family-centered care among children with special health care needs and health plan enrollees, but the extent of disparities in the general pediatric population remains unclear. OBJECTIVE: To examine racial and ethnic disparities in the receipt of family-centered care among a general population of US children. METHODS: Linked data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and the National Health Interview Survey (2003-2006) were used to study 4 family-centered care items and an overall composite measure of family-centered care. Adjusted models examined the extent to which child characteristics, socioeconomic, and access to care factors explained racial and ethnic disparities in the provision of family-centered care. RESULTS: Black children have similar experiences as white children on overall family-centered care and on each of the 4 components of family-centered care in models that adjust for child characteristics and socioeconomic factors. In contrast, differences in dimensions of and overall family-centered care between white children and Latino children, irrespective of interview language, persist after multivariate adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Future research should examine the extent to which Latino-white differences in the receipt of family-centered care can be narrowed with programs and policies geared at improving parental education, health literacy, the quality of provider communication, and quality improvement strategies for health care systems.