Association of Healthy Home Environments and Use of Patient-Centered Medical Homes by Children of Low-Income Families

Abstract Introduction Medicaid agencies have been promoting the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model. Most caregivers choose physician practices for their children, and we hypothesized that those following healthier childrearing practices are more likely to seek care in a PCMH. Method We selected children with public insurance plans ( n = 20,801) from the 2011–2012 National Survey of Children's Health. We used generalized ordinal logistic regression with state fixed effects to assess the association between home environments and children's use of PCMHs. Results Children living in the healthiest homes were 1.33 times ( p = .001) more likely to receive care from the highest level of PCMH. In states with early PCMH implementation, the odds increased to 2.11 times ( p = .001). Discussion Our results show a significant, sizeable relationship between healthier home environments and the use of PCMH by children from low-income families. They provide implications for assessing the effect of PCMH use on health outcomes and use patterns.