Analysis: Single dads' kids see doc less

WASHINGTON, July 30 (UPI) -- Children in single-father homes have less access to health insurance and medical care than their peers living with two parents or a single mother, according to a new study.

"Kids in single-father families are more likely to spend the entire year with absolutely no insurance than they are in other family structures," said Kathleen Ziol-Guest, co-author of the study, "Reexamining the Effects of Family Structure on Children's Access to Care: the Single-Father Family," recently published in Health Services Research, a peer-reviewed journal.

Of the 62,193 children included in the study, those in single-father homes were 20 percent more likely than their peers to spend an entire year without health insurance coverage, after adjusting for income, race and other socioeconomic factors. Children in these homes also visit the doctor less frequently. While 86 percent of children in two-parent families and 87 percent of children with single mothers had seen a doctor in the past year, only 8 percent of their counterparts in single-father homes did.

Single-father families comprise only 6 percent of all families with children, but men are heading an increasing percentage of homes with only one parent. But little research has been conducted on this family structure, said Ziol-Guest, a health and society scholar with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a philanthropy that focuses on healthcare.

"Lots of kids are growing up in these households and we need to better understand this family structure in order to help them," Ziol-Guest told United Press International.

Both types of single-parent homes tend to have lower incomes and greater unemployment than two-parent homes, but single fathers generally have higher incomes and better job prospects than their female counterparts.

However, children in single-mother homes have comparable access to healthcare and insurance as those in two-parent homes, although a higher percentage use public health insurance.

Cultural differences between men and women may be the underlying reason for the difference, Ziol-Guest said.

"Other studies have indicated that men seek out healthcare less than women, so it might be a situation where men seek out the same care for their children that they would seek out for themselves," she said.

This may be part of the reason 57 percent of children with single fathers receive routine checkups, compared with 69 percent of children in single-mother homes and 67 percent of those in two-parent families. In addition, children with single dads are less likely to have a regular source of care aside from the emergency room than their peers in other family structures.

The differences in care received reflect differences in the way men and women perceive their children's health, said Lindsey Leininger, co-author of the study and a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago.

"Single mothers are a lot more likely to report their children are in fair or poor health than fathers are," she said. "Men are also greater risk takers (than women)."

Because of these differences, creative methods may be necessary to inform fathers about healthcare and insurance programs, Leininger said.

"We need to reach these kids in non-traditional ways," she said. "I think a school-based model might be a good way to catch children of single-father families and other children that fall out of the traditional social service umbrella."