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A child's health is the most important part of the growing up process as it determines cognitive health too. From academic performance to the status of health as an adult, well-being during childhood can determine many a factors.

However, in what can be called a disturbing report, a new study has found that in the U.S. children who belong to low-income families of immigrant parents do not have access to health care services like their native peers. 

The study conducted by researchers at Cornell University and the University of Chicago investigated how the children of immigrant parents were utilizing their health insurance and regular health care.

The immigrants constitute of 13 percent of the total population while their children make up to 22 percent of all children and 30 percent of low-income children in the United States.

Most of the children born to immigrant parents were born in the U.S., hence being eligible for government assistance in healthcare, just like other U.S. citizens. However, the difference lies in their health insurance effectiveness and also, they use a regular health care provider.

For the study, the researchers examined a sample of 46,000 low-income children (below age 18), and their immigrant status was classified in accordance to the status their parents. Such as: Nonpermanent residents, permanent residents, naturalized citizens, or members of a native household.

Then, a report on the status of their health was made, in accordance to the information given by their mothers. The details provided by the mothers consisted of things like how often the children visited the dentist, or a doctor in the past year, etc.  

The findings revealed that low-income children of immigrants are significantly low on good health and visit doctors/dentists less often when compared to low-income native-born children.

Also, another revelation of the study was that a child with at least one nonpermanent resident parent had the poorest health and was least likely to visit a doctor or a dentist.

"Our findings underscore the idea that those with more precarious immigration statuses show the poorest health outcomes, and that families with noncitizen members face barriers, real or perceived, to using relevant programs-in this case, health-related programs," lead author of the study, Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest, a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University, said.

"Noncitizen parents may be unaware of their U.S.-born children's eligibility for important benefits, or they may believe that seeking assistance for eligible children would hinder other family members' efforts to obtain citizenship or legal status, or their ability to re-enter and stay in the United States."

The study was published in the journal Child Development.