As an investigation shows, single parents (single or separated) go less often to the pediatrician's office, they usually come when they have to perform certain controls of their children's health, the administration of vaccines, etc. However, children who live only with the mother come as many or more times as a family in which both parents live.
As the study shows, men are more reluctant to go to the doctor's office, although the study shows that many of these parents do not have medical insurance, becoming up to a year without him. As we know, the health system is different depending on the country, the study makes reference to the North American case, in Spain it may be a different situation since just because it is Spanish, health coverage is guaranteed. The fact is that visits to the pediatrician are necessary and obligatory, what may seem like a simple cold can be complicated and become a more serious illness, in the face of ailments of these characteristics these parents usually do not show interest or downplay, either because of the lack of time, lack of medical insurance, etc.
To prepare this study, experts collected data from 62,193 children under 18 years of age through surveys to learn about aspects such as visits and their frequency to health centers. Of those surveyed, 3% lived only with their father and of them, only 57% went to pediatric control consultations. Up to 69% of single mothers came to perform these controls, the difference is remarkable.
Caring for children is very important and problems are present in both parents, perhaps mothers are more consistent and take the time, money or effort needed to ensure that children are healthy and develop properly. Anyway and as we said before, it would be interesting to verify this data in parents residing in Spain.
All study data have been published in the electronic journal Health Services Research.
