Children of single dads get less health care on Yahoo! News
Posted by GruntDoc on August 10th, 2007
Print Story: Children of single dads get less health care on Yahoo! News
Single fathers are less likely than other parents to take their children for routine doctor visits, and more likely to go without health insurance, a new study suggests.
Using data from a national survey of U.S. families, researchers found that fewer children in single-father homes made routine, “well-child” doctor visits compared with children in either two-parent or single-mother homes.
The children with single fathers were also 20 percent more likely to go a full year without health insurance, according to findings published online by the journal Health Services Research.
In contrast, children of single mothers had “comparable if not better access to care” than children living with both parents, the study authors report.
Hmm. Support bias by the government, lack of asking for support by single dads? Not a lot of answers here.
“The bottom line is that children in single-father families may be more vulnerable to health problems because they’re not getting well-child visits or they don’t have easy access to care when they need it,” study co-author Dr. Kathleen Ziol-Guest said in a statement.
Operative word in that run-on sentence? May. As in we may be assuming too much, or we may just take one data point and extrapolate that to other conclusions.
Men are generally less likely than women to make routine doctor visits for their own health, and this may partially explain the findings, according to Ziol-Guest, a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
More mays. One wonders how this gets published..
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August 10th, 2007 at 9:57 am
I’m not at all surprised. Men in general are far less likely to make doctors’ appointments and seek health care. In fact, after over 12 years of medical practice I can say it’s a rarity when one receives a call from a man for any reason. Calls about men and children typically come from a concerned female relative–daughters, mothers, wives, daughters-in-law, grandmothers.
Children of married dads get more health care because the dad’s wife typically arranges for everything.
That’s my theory, anyway. Next to worthless study in my opinion.
August 10th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Yep… part of that is probably directly traceable to the general stoicism that’s drilled into men. Men don’t get sick… and if they do, they suck it up and deal with it. They may, by extension, expect no less from their kids.
Something to be said for that mothering/nurturing, I guess.
August 10th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Odd, as the few men who are single father’s I know of, are that way for a reason. They actually give their children more love, health care concern and time then the women who was to be their mothers. I know this is not true of all folks, but of the few I do know who have custody over the woman, their kids are WELL taken care of.
I am thinking this is just another reason we all need” healthcare from the govt to get by.” Rolls eyes……..
August 12th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Yup, time for the government to step in. Soon it will be a crime to not take your child to the doctor for routine care. We are not truly free in this country to raise our children as we see fit.