ABSTRACT
The health status of Hispanic children in the United States has become an important national issue as a result of the rapid growth and persistent poverty of this population. Prior to the physician's examination, health and sociodemographic information pertinent to the child was obtained via a home interview conducted by a bilingual interviewer. This chapter assesses the health status of Mexican–American, mainland Puerto Rican, and Cuban–American children involved two objective measures of health status—birth outcomes and chronic medical conditions—and one subjective measure—the perception of children's health status. Survey physicians used the health information from the home interview together with their physical examination findings to determine whether a child had a chronic medical condition, defined as any medical condition that had caused loss of function or limitation of activity for the previous three months or longer.
