Factors associated with intensiveness of use of child preventive health services in Taiwan: a comparative study between cross-cultural immigrant families and native-born families.

Objectives: To compare intensiveness of use of child preventive health services (CPHS) between cross-cultural immigrant families and native-born families in Taiwan and to explore factors associated with differences in intensiveness of CPHS use.

Design: Cross-cultural immigrant families were defined as families where the mother was an immigrant from another southeast Asian country. In native-born families, both parents were Taiwanese-born. Data were collected from 318 immigrant mothers and 340 native-born mothers of children aged 7 years or younger in a cross-sectional survey in central Taiwan. A social determinants framework of health inequities was constructed, and ordinal logistic regression models were used to examine the effect of four domains of intermediary determinants on the relationship between family type and underuse of CPHS: CPHS-related factors, medical-related factors, maternal acculturation factors, and sociodemographic/socioeconomic characteristics.

Results: Cross-cultural immigrant families were less likely to intensively use CPHS than native-born families. This difference appeared to be mediated by the greater likelihood of having an older child or a lower educated father in cross-cultural families.

Conclusion: Findings of this study highlight the importance of promoting health behaviors and combating health inequities and social inequalities for cross-cultural immigrant families in Taiwan from a sociodemographic/socioeconomic and political context.