Unmet needs across Europe: Disclosing knowledge beyond the ordinary measure

Perceptions of healthcare access among Lithuanians aged 65 and over during the COVID-19 pandemic

Aim

This study investigates the perceived accessibility of healthcare services among older adults in Lithuania during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is significant as it sheds light on geographical, organizational, and financial healthcare access issues encountered by the older population.

Methods

Conducted in January 2024, the study involved an anonymous questionnaire survey of 1,503 Lithuanian residents aged 65 and older.

Results

The most frequently utilized healthcare services were consultations with a general practitioner (75.4%) 22.0% of respondents reported not receiving any healthcare services. 53.5% respondents were satisfied with travel time to specialists. Common challenges included difficulties in getting appointments with specialists (53.9%) and dentists (36.2%). Financial barriers led to unmet healthcare needs: 12.6% of the respondents did not receive needed services, 12.8% did not undergo recommended tests, and 14.2% did not purchase prescribed medications. Healthcare services were less accessible to elders with lower education, lower incomes, and those who self-rated health poorly (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

Most respondents received the healthcare they needed during the pandemic and rated geographical access positively. However, some problems in organizational and financial access were disclosed. The observed social gradient indicates that socioeconomic factors significantly influence healthcare access, potentially increasing vulnerability among certain groups.

Impact of medical resources in residential area on unmet healthcare needs: Findings from a multi-level analysis of Korean nationwide data

Purpose

This study aimed to examine whether sufficient medical resources in residential areas influence individuals' unmet healthcare needs in South Korea, where overpopulation is of concern.

Methods

Two publicly available datasets were utilized: The Korean Community Health Survey at the individual-level and the Korean medical utilization statistics at the regional-level. It included 176,378 individuals. To address the clustered nature of the regional-level data, a multi-level framework was applied, containing individual-level data, incorporating demographic details and health information.

Results

Individuals living in small cities and rural areas with sufficient medical resources were 1.26 times more likely to experience unmet healthcare needs than those living in well-resourced metropolitan cities. Additionally, the adjusted odds ratio for unmet healthcare needs was the highest at 1.32 for those living in small cities and rural areas lacking sufficient medical resources. Stratified analyses revealed the largest disparity in unmet healthcare needs between income levels in regions with sufficient resources. In these areas, those with the lowest income were 1.77 times more likely to experience unmet healthcare than those with the highest income. Similarly, in metropolitan cities, the income-based gap in unmet healthcare needs was most pronounced, with the adjusted odds ratio for the lowest-income group being 1.66.

Conclusions

Our findings demonstrate that living in small cities or rural areas with insufficient medical resources, as well as having a low income level even in an area with sufficient medical services, significantly increases individuals' unmet healthcare needs. This suggests then need for equitable distribution medical resources across regions and public health support policies that do not limit access to medical care for people with poor socioeconomic status.

Equity and unmet need of non-communicable diseases services in Saudi Arabia using a National Household Survey (2019)

BACKGROUND

Saudi Arabia is implementing a comprehensive health system transformation in health services provision, governance, and financing. Given the high burden of non-communicable diseases (NCD), a key objective of the transformation is to integrate NCD prevention and treatment into primary care. The study objectives were to assess primary care service use for treatment of NCDs, to quantify existing inequities in preventive services utilization, and to identify regional and sociodemographic factors associated with these inequities.

METHODS

Using the 2019 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia World Health Survey, multivariable logistic regression models were conducted to identify predictors of utilization of primary care services for NCD prevention and treatment, unmet need among those with a diagnosis of diabetes, hypertension, or dyslipidemia, and unmet need in breast and cervical cancer screening.

RESULTS

Among those with an NCD diagnosis, living in a high-income household was associated with a lower probability of having an unmet need compared to those in low-income households. Furthermore, rural residents were less likely to have an unmet need compared to urban residents (OR 0.58, p=0.029). Individuals without a perceived need for healthcare within the last 12 months had three times the probability of unmet need in comparison to those with such a perceived need (p<0.001). Women in all regions had a lower probability of ever having a mammogram compared to women in the central regions around Riyadh. Women with an education above a secondary level had five times the odds of undergoing cervical cancer screening and three times the likelihood of ever having a mammogram (P=0.012, p=0.02) than other women. Compared to women in low-income households, those in middle (OR 1.99, P=0.026), upper middle (OR 3.47, p<0.001), or high-income households (OR 2.59, p<0.001) had a higher probability of having had cervical cancer screening.

CONCLUSIONS

Inequities in NCD treatment and prevention services' utilization in Saudi Arabia are strongly associated with region of living, population density, wealth, income, education and perceived need for health care. More research is needed to better understand the extent of unmet primary care needs for NCD and how to address the underlying contributing factors to access inequities.

Unmet Health Care Needs of the Older Population in European Countries Based on Indicators Available in the Eurostat Database

Access to healthcare may affect the health of the population, especially older people. The aim of this study is to analyze the reasons and factors influencing the unmet healthcare needs (UHCN) of the older population in the context of differences between age groups for 28 European countries. A self-reported UHCN indicator obtained from Eurostat database was used. The share of people with healthcare needs reporting distance/transportation issues was significantly different in the younger and older groups, as well as in age groups within the older population. The differences in other reasons were not so considerable. Problems with UHCN were observed more often in the older population with lower rather than with higher income and with more severe activity limitations rather than with none/moderate limitations (differences statistically significant, except for income for 75+). In most countries, the UHCN dependence on income/activity limitation is higher in the age group of 15-64 than for the older population. To plan/introduce/monitor appropriate, tailored actions for improving healthcare access for the older population, a detailed analysis of the UHCN prevalence, reasons, and determinants in this age group is needed; it is insufficient to analyze only the population as a whole. Additionally, the group of older people is not homogeneous in terms of UHCN.

Unmet healthcare needs, health outcomes, and health inequalities among older people in China

Objective

This study examines whether the experience of unmet healthcare needs in a large sample of Chinese adults aged 60 and over is associated with adverse health outcomes, and how this association varied across needs related to health conditions.

Study design

The 2013 wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study is examined. We adopted latent class analysis to identify groups based on health conditions. Then in each identified group, we examined the extent to which unmet needs were associated with self-rated health and depression. To understand the channels through which unmet needs adversely affected health outcomes, we examined the impact of unmet needs attributed to various factors.

Results

Compared to the mean, experiencing unmet outpatient needs is associated with a 3.4% decrease in self-rated health, and people are twice as likely to have depression symptoms (OR = 2.06). Health problems are even more severe when inpatient needs are not met. The frailest people are most affected by affordability-related unmet needs, while healthy people are most affected by unmet needs attributable to availability.

Conclusion

To tackle unmet needs, direct measures for particular populations will be required in the future.

Investigating the Needs of Patients Suffering from Chronic Diseases: A Cross-Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION

Chronic diseases represent a huge challenge for the health systems globally due to the rapidly increasing number of patients and their long-term need for healthcare. The purpose of this study was to investigate the needs of patients suffering from chronic diseases.

METHODOLOGY

This is a cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of 840 adults with chronic diseases. The data collection was done with an improvised needs survey questionnaire, which included 56 questions. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, v.25.0, statistical significance being considered at p < 0.05.

RESULTS

The main diseases of the patients were chronic renal failure (22.6%), multiple sclerosis (19%), cancer (19%), diabetes mellitus (7.1%), dementia (6%), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (6%). The majority of patients (82.1%) were sick for more than 24 months. Patients seek information from health professionals (4.07 ± 1.4), feel tired (4.05 ± 1.4), have to share their feelings with other family members (4.01 ± 1.4), feel anxious about the future (3.94 ± 1.3), and feel out of control (3.80 ± 1.5).

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with chronic diseases suffer from numerous physical, mental, emotional, and cognitive problems. Paying attention to the unmet needs of patients could have beneficial effects on both patients and their caregivers.

How do perceptions of public health measures affect experience of unmet healthcare needs among older Korean adults during COVID-19 pandemic?

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Lack of or inadequate access to needed care may deteriorate health.

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COVID-19 outbreak may prohibit access to needed care.

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A poor understanding of public health measures increased unmet healthcare needs.

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Trust and satisfaction of public health measures were not related to unmet healthcare needs.

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The findings suggest the importance of effective risk communication.

Increasing difficulties in the use of healthcare services after the COVID-19 outbreak is a major concern as ensuring access to healthcare services is a primary health policy goal. The aim of this study was to examine the impacts of public perceptions regarding COVID-19 related public health measures on older adults’ experience of unmet healthcare needs in Korea. A total of 1961 participants from the Korea Health Care System Performance, over the age of 65, were included in the analyses. Three different logistic regression models were used to assess the impact of public perceptions – understanding, trust and satisfaction- regarding COVID-19 public health measures on unmet healthcare needs. Our results show that a poor understanding of public health measures was associated with higher odds of unmet healthcare needs among Korean older adults (OR:2.65, 95%CI: 1.79–3.94). However, trust and satisfaction of public health measures were not related to unmet healthcare needs. Our findings suggest that the importance of effective risk communication to facilitate better understand quarantine polices rather than emphasizing trust or satisfaction over public health measure.

Unmet needs as indicator of improving chronic care delivery system in China

In 2009, China strengthened its public health service system. Since then, the country has made remarkable achievements in community-based chronic disease prevention and control; however, certain groups still have unmet needs. During 2019 to 2029, China will consolidate the top-level design of its medical health system. During this period, the coordination of department policies, improvement of service delivery mechanisms, building an integrated health service system, and other issues will be highlighted. This study will provide a basis for designing China's chronic disease prevention and control system during the next stage of development. We will consider the unmet needs of patients with chronic diseases as an indicator for remodeling the prediction system in combination with the elements and structural theories of complex health systems. In this article, we first introduce the definition and measurement methods of unmet needs. Second, we identify the existing unmet needs found among patients with chronic diseases with reference to the chronic disease prevention and control policies of China as well as current service items. Finally, we propose the design of community chronic disease service package for the next development stage based on unmet needs of patients with chronic diseases. We also provide suggestions for how to improve China's chronic care delivery system.

Unmet Medical Needs of Patients with Benign Prostate Enlargement

This study aimed to analyze the factors affecting the unmet medical needs of patients with benign prostate enlargement (BPE) based on Andersen's behavioral model. The data were taken from the 2009-2016 Korea Health Panel Study and 3003 participants were used for analysis. "Unmet medical needs" was used as a dependent variable. Independent variables were predisposing variables: age, educational attainment, and marital status; enabling factors: income, job type, and insurance type; and need factors: lying in a sickbed, activity limitation, subjective health status, and having chronic diseases. Results showed that younger patients experienced a higher probability of unmet medical needs. Those with higher educational attainment had a lower chance of experiencing unmet medical needs. Patients with national health insurance were less likely to experience unmet medical needs. In addition, patients who experienced lying in a sickbed had a higher probability of experiencing unmet medical needs. Therefore, in order to reduce the unmet medical needs of patients with BPE, it is necessary to allow patients to be treated early and give them accurate information about the disease. In addition, access to medical care should be strengthened through continuous care focused on primary care.