Association between health service utilisation of internal migrant children and parents’ acculturation in Guangdong, China: a cross-sectional study

ObjectivesTo assess the health service utilisation of internal migrant children in Guangdong, China, and to explore the association between children’s health service utilisation and their parents’ acculturation.DesignCross-sectional survey between April and May 2016.SettingSix society-run schools of Tianhe and Baiyun districts in Guangzhou City of China.ParticipantsWe recruited all students at grade 7 or 8 and one of their parents who resided in Guangzhou over 6 months without permanent registered residence (hukou) in Guangzhou (1161 pairs completed this survey). 258 children were ill within the past 2 weeks or during the last year.Main outcome measuresThe main outcome was self-reported health service utilisation. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to explore the association between children’s unmet needs for outpatient or inpatient service and their parents’ acculturation (categorised into high, middle and low groups).ResultsIn total, 216 children, or 18.6% of the total subjects, were ill within the past 2 weeks and were in need of outpatient service; 94 children, or 8.1% of the total subjects, were in need of inpatient service. Among them, 17.6% and 46.8% of the migrant children had unmet needs for outpatient and inpatient services, respectively. After controlling for enabling resources and predisposing characteristics, migrant children with parents in the middle-acculturation group (adjusted OR=3.17, 95% CIs 1.2 to 8.3, P