Jessica Y. Lee|Kimon Divaris|Darren A. DeWalt|A. Diane Baker|Ziya Gizlice|R. Gary Rozier|William F. Vann
Caregivers’ Health Literacy and Gaps in Children’s Medicaid Enrollment: Findings from the Carolina Oral Health Literacy Study
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
background objectives recent evidence supports link caregivers health literacy childrens health use health services disruptions childrens health insurance coverage linked poor health care outcomes examined young childrens medicaid enrollment patterns wellcharacterized cohort childcaregivers dyads investigated association caregivers low health literacy incidence enrollment gaps methods relied upon medicaid enrollment data 1208 children mean age 19 months enrolled carolina oral health literacy project 200809 median followup 25 months health literacy measured using newest vital sign nvs analyses relied descriptive bivariate multivariate methods based poisson modeling findings onethird children experienced one enrollment gaps short duration median 5 months risk gaps inversely associated caregivers age 2 relative risk decrease added year low health literacy associated modestly elevated risk increase incidence rate ratio irr 117 95 confidence interval ci 088157 enrollment disruptions however estimate substantially elevated among caregivers less high school education irr 152 95 ci 099235 homogeneity p02 conclusions findings provide initial support possible role caregivers health literacy determinant childrens medicaid enrollment gaps although association health literacy enrollment gaps confirmed statistically found markedly stronger among caregivers low educational attainment population well young caregivers may vulnerable negative effects low health literacy