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The study also shows that African American and Hispanic children are more likely than white children to visit the emergency room for an ear infection.

"Our goal was to provide an accurate demographic picture of the U.S. so that we could identify disparities to target for intervention," said study co-author Dr. Nina Shapiro, director of pediatric otolaryngology at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA and an associate professor of surgery at the Geffen School of Medicine. "Clearly, we found that children of certain ethnicities who suffer from frequent ear infections are more likely to face greater barriers to care. This information provides an opportunity for improvements in our current health care reform."

Researchers used data from a 10-year period (1997–2006) taken from the National Health Interview Survey, a large-scale, household-based survey of a statistically representative sample of the U.S. population.

Findings include:
A greater percentage of African American children (42.7 percent) and Hispanic children (34.5 percent) lived below the poverty level than white children (12.0 percent) and those of "other ethnicity" (28.0 percent).

A greater percentage of Hispanic children (18.2 percent) and "other ethnicity" children (16.6 percent) were uninsured, compared with whites (6.5 percent).

A greater percentage of white children (29.2 percent) reported having access to specialty care than African American children (20.0 percent), Hispanic children (17.5 percent) and "other ethnicity" children (18.9 percent).

A greater percentage of African American children (28.4 percent) and Hispanic children (19.8 percent) visited the emergency room at least twice for ear infections over a 12-month period than white children (15.5 percent).

"Emergency room visits for ear infections by African American and Hispanic children may represent their source of primary care services, which is more costly and a significant burden on the health care system," Shapiro said. "This finding, along with the fact that fewer Hispanic and African American children were insured or received specialty care, highlights the importance of targeting interventions that help children with frequent ear infections."

The next stage of the research is to follow the racial and ethnic groups prospectively and to monitor whether changes stemming from health care reform influence disparities in these groups over time.

Comments to date: 1. Page 1 of 1. Average Rating: Murat    YrhvcSorNKeisOh 6:07pm on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012  Many of us experience the dgaenr of biking the Everett Street bridge. In terms of future plans, the need has been acknowledged as part of the community wide planning process in the context of Harvard University's proposed development in Allston. If you want to learn more, try to attend the next meeting (info. will be posted here about the meeting/summarizing it after it happens). In the meantime, there are a few suggestions we have that may improve safety. If you need financial assistance with purchasing safety equipment, A-Bbikes can try to help. If you haven't already, we'd also suggest you review the information available on MassBike's website (see link on the right side of this blog). We'd also be happy to help you organize a biking school bus there's often safety in numbers. We will pass your comment/question along to Boston Bikes at the City of Boston and some local interested officials as well. Please feel free to contact us directly at . Your Name: Your Location: Vote: Choose 1 - Dreadful 2 - Poor 3 - Fair 4 - Good 5 - Excellent Your Comment: Security check *