Related Experiment Videos
Birth order, family size, and children's use of physician services
Insights
Birth order impacts physician visits, with later-born children seeking less medical care. This study isolates birth order effects from family size on children's healthcare utilization.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Health Services Research
- Family Studies
Background:
- Previous studies show a correlation between larger family size and fewer physician visits.
- The confounding effect of birth order on this relationship has been largely overlooked.
Purpose of the Study:
- To differentiate the independent effects of sibling number and birth order on physician service utilization.
- To investigate if birth order influences healthcare-seeking behavior in children.
Main Methods:
- Statistical control of family size variation.
- Analysis of physician utilization data from 1,665 children across 587 families.
Main Results:
- An inverse relationship was observed between birth order and physician utilization.
- Later-born children utilized physician services less frequently than earlier-born children, even when family size was constant.
Conclusions:
- Birth order is an independent factor influencing children's physician service use.
- Parental experience and evolving understanding of healthcare needs may explain reduced utilization for later-born children.
Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to separate out the effects of number of siblings and birth order on children's use of physician services. Prior research has consistently revealed an inverse relationship between family size and physician visits, but the possible confounding influence of the child's ordinal position in the family has been ignored. Later born children may be taken to the doctor less often than first and other early borns because of their parents' increasing knowledgeability in regard to child care as well as their growing understanding of the uses and limitations of physician visits. On the assumption that part of the family size effect observed in prior research may have been due to the clustering of first and early borns in small families, an inverse relationship between birth order and physician utilization is hypothesized. Support for this hypothesis comes from an empirical study of 1,665 children from 587 families in which variation in family size is statistically controlled.