Differences in Perceived Importance of Preventative Services and Healthcare Provider Trust Among Hispanics

The Hispanic population varies greatly in their risk factors, health outcomes and access to care by country of origin, level of education and language dominance (Vega & Amaro, 1994) (Fiscella, Franks, Doescher, & Saver, 2002b). The differences within the Hispanic population also extend to their knowledge and attitudes toward health choices and maintenance, where they receive their health information, and what they access to meet their health care needs. Subpopulations within the Hispanic community as defined by language dominance and nativity must be understood as separate and distinct so that the health needs of each can be adequately addressed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recently begun using audience research data sources, the Scarborough Marketing Research Survey and the Multimedia Audience Research Systems (MARS) Consumer Healthcare Study, to better understand the target audiences of health communication messages and campaigns. This study seeks to evaluate the validity and representativeness of the MARS study and evaluate the relationship of Spanish language dominance and foreign birth on attitudes towards annual medical exams and vaccination as well as internet access. A two-tailed independent t-test demonstrates that the means of commonly used demographic variables are significantly different between the MARS survey and the commonly accepted Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey. However, the usefulness of the MARS study remains and its representativeness and validity need further study. Linear regression demonstrates a relationship between both foreign birth(B=.011) and Spanish language dominance (B=.018) and considering an annual exam to be important (p=0.00). These two variables are also shown to be related to trust of physician to recommend vaccines (p=0.00). Binomial Logistic Regression demonstrates that Spanish language dominance decreases the likelihood of using wireless devices to access the internet while foreign birth increases the likelihood although the model’s goodness of fit is lacking. The findings of this study may be used as additional evidence to support the use of these new data sources as well as to better understand the health behavior, attitude, and access disparities among Hispanics in the U.S regarding annual exams and vaccination