Date of Conferral
12-23-2025
Date of Award
December 2025
Degree
Ph.D.
School
Health Sciences
Advisor
Raymond Panas
Abstract
Health checkups and wellness visits are a vital pathway to early detection and diagnosis of disease. It is not known whether young adults, insured or not, are opting into preventive care services to optimize health status via health checkups/wellness visits at primary care academic health centers. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relation of wellness visits to healthcare insurance and health status while adjusting for gender among young adults ages 18–35 years in the United States. A descriptive correlational design was used with the 2023 National Health Interview Survey data set (N = 6,544). The results of ordinal logistic regression reveal a statistically significant relationship between wellness visits utilization and health status after controlling for gender. Young adults who had not visited a doctor recently for a wellness checkup were less likely to report poorer health compared to those who had (β = −0.367, p < .001). Binary logistic regression showed a statistically significant relationship was found between wellness visits utilization and health insurance coverage after controlling for gender. Young adults who had not visited a doctor recently for a wellness checkup were less likely to report having healthcare insurance coverage compared to those who had (β = 0.269, p = .004). The results emphasize the need for targeted strategies to affect adherence to utilization of preventive care. Findings have potential implications for positive social change that include epidemiological insight into public health primary care services and updated age-specific preventive care guidelines.
Recommended Citation
Beaubrun, Samantha H., "Relationship Between a Company's Owner Demographics, Socioeconomic Conditions, and Entrepreneurial Funding" (2025). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 19304.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/19304
