Physician Visits
illness or injury
Mothers responded to 2 items indexing how often they sought health care for their child in the past year: “About how many times in the last year did you take your child to a doctor because they were sick?” and “About how many times in the last year did you take your child to a doctor because they were hurt or injured?” Responses were categorized as 0 to 1 visits, 2 to 5 visits, or 6 or more visits. Across all 3 waves of data collection, most mothers (>92%) reported fewer than 6 or more physician visits in the last year. We collapsed these items into 2 dichotomous indicators, representing whether the mother reported 2 or more physician visits due to illness or injury in the past year.