Increasingly- geographic information systems employing spatial data are being used to identify communities with poorer health care status. Since health care indicators are strongly linked to income- could these data- usually based on adult indicators- be used for pediatric health care need? We hypothesized that individual-level indicators such as quality of life scales (QOL) would be better than community-level indicators at identifying families with poorer health care practices. Surveys and medical record reviews were used for a sample of 174 caregivers of young children. Lower level of income was associated with poorer scores on several QOL domains- and on the primary health practices (i.e.- non-urgent emergency room use and lack of age-appropriate immunization status). One community-level indicator- the medically underserved area (MUA)- was almost as good as the best individual-level indicators at predicting primary health care practices. The community-level indicator of MUA appears to meet its initial int