Health-care-related attitudes and utilization among African American women

This study examined attitudes of African American women toward medical care and health insurance. Data were analyzed from the National Medical Expenditure Survey, a large household survey conducted by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and focusing on insurance and health care utilization. The responses of African American women tended neither to downplay the importance of receiving health care as essential to health maintenance and recovery from illness, nor to minimize health insurance as a worthwhile investment. When African American women did give responses discounting the importance of health care, the attitude difference failed to account for race-related differences in utilization. There was no evidence in the data to indicate that attitudes lead African American women to neglect seeking medical care or acquiring health insurance, and solutions to the problem of medical care underutilization must be sought elsewhere.