TABLE 2—

Health and Ambulatory Care Use Characteristics, by Ambulatory Care User Type and Race/Ethnicity: Male Veterans, Southern California and Southern Nevada, November 2000–February 2001

	White (n = 1179)	Black (n = 910)	Hispanic (n = 894)	Asian/Pacific Islander (n = 244)	Total (N = 3227)
Ambulatory care visits per year, mean
VA users	11.4	13.5	12.7	7.8	11.9
VA visits, VA users	8.1	11.9*	11.1*	5.2	9.1
Non-VA visits, VA users	3.2	1.6*	1.6*	2.6	2.7
Non-VA–only users	5.9	3.8	4.3	2.0	5.4
Overall health fair or poor, %
No ambulatory care use	12.6	28.6*	8.6	5.1	14.0
Ambulatory care use	22.5	35.2*	21.4	39.4*	24.4
Usual source of care is emergency department or none, %
No ambulatory care use	8.9	16.4*	1.1*	0.2	8.4
Ambulatory care use	4.7	2.9	1.4*	0.6	3.9
Any VA use	3.7	6.5	6.3	4.1	4.5
Non-VA–only use	4.9	0.9*	0.3*	0.1	3.8
Has a usual provider of care, %
No ambulatory care use	71.8	74.9	60.6*	68.5	70.0
Ambulatory care use	77.5	69.9*	83.2	43.6*	76.2
Any VA use	76.3	73.6	68.8	77.0	75.0
Non-VA–only use	77.8	67.9*	86.3*	38.5*	76.5
Usual provider is attending MD, %a
No ambulatory care use	92.7	89.9	85.1*	83.4	90.5
Ambulatory care use	91.3	70.7*	92.2	95.5	89.1
Any VA use	77.4	75.7	77.9	85.5	77.2
Non-VA–only use	94.4	68.1*	95.2	96.9	92.1

Note. VA = Department of Veterans Affairs; MD = medical doctor.

^a From subset of sample with an identified usual provider of care.

* P < .05 compared with White veterans.