To examine racial/ethnic disparities in medical and oral health status, access to care, and use of services in adolescents.
Secondary data analysis of the 2003 ational urvey of hildren's ealth. The survey focus was children 0–17 years old.
Bivariate and multivariable analyses were conducted for white, frican merican, atino, sian/acific slander, merican ndian/laskan ative, and multiracial adolescents 10–17 years old ( = 48,742) to identify disparities in 40 measures of health and health care.
Certain disparities were especially marked for specific racial/ethnic groups and multiracial youth. These disparities included suboptimal health status and lack of a personal doctor or nurse for atinos; suboptimal oral health and not receiving all needed medications in the past year for frican mericans; no physician visit or mental health care in the past year for sian/acific slanders; overweight/obesity, uninsurance, problems getting specialty care, and no routine preventive visit in the past year for merican ndian/laska atives; and not receiving all needed dental care in multiracial youth.
adolescents experience many racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care. These findings indicate a need for ongoing identification and monitoring of and interventions for disparities for all five major racial/ethnic groups and multiracial adolescents.
