Inequities in routine preventive care utilization among persons with overweight/obesity in the United States: An analysis of nativity, racial and ethnic identity, and socioeconomic status

Abstract

Extant literature documented various health disparities among immigrants and racial and ethnically marginalized individuals in the United States. However, health disparities in the intersection of nativity and race are generally less visited. This cross-sectional study assessed utilization of routine preventive care among adults with overweight/obesity at the junction of their nativity, racial/ethnic identity, and socioeconomic status (i.e., income and education). Pooling data on 120,184 adults with overweight/obesity from the 2013–2018 waves of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), we estimated modified Poisson regressions with robust standard errors to obtain adjusted prevalence rates of preventive care visit, receiving flu shot, and having blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose screened. We found that immigrant adults with overweight/obesity had lower rates of utilization of all five preventive care services. However, these patterns varied by racial and ethnic sub-populations. While White immigrants had comparable rates of cholesterol and blood glucose screening, they had 2.7%, 2.9%, and 14.5% lower rates of preventive care visit, blood pressure screening, and getting a flu shot respectively, compared to native-born Whites. These patterns were similar for Asian immigrants as well. Black immigrants, on the other hand, had comparable rates of getting a flu shot and blood glucose screening, and had 5.2%, 4.9%, and 4.9% lower rates of preventive care visit, blood pressure screening, and cholesterol screening respectively. Lastly, the rates of utilization among Hispanic immigrants were significantly lower (ranging from 9.2% to 20%) than those of their native-born counterparts for all five preventive care services. These rates further varied by education, income, and length of stay in the US, within the racial and ethnic sub-groups. Our findings thus suggest a complex relationship between nativity and racial/ethnic identity in relation to preventive care utilization among adults with overweight/obesity.