Prevalence of unmet health care need in older adults in 83 countries: measuring progressing towards universal health coverage in the context of global population ageing

Population Health Metrics

Research

Paolo Miguel Manalang Vicerra¹  Wiraporn Pothisiri²  Nekehia T. Quashie³  Nawi Ng⁴  Herney Alonso Rengifo Reina⁵  Thanh Long Giang⁶  Paul Kowal⁷  Nadia Minicuci⁸  Barbara Corso⁸  Andy Towers⁹  Julie Byles^1,10  Kanya Anindya^1,11  Flavia C. D. Andrade^1,12  Maria Teresa Calzada Guitierrez^1,13  Megumi Rosenberg^1,14 

[1]Asian Demographic Research Institute, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China

[2]College of Population Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

[3]Department of Health Studies, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, USA

[4]Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Gothenberg, Gothenburg, Sweden

[5]Facultad de Odontología, Universidad El Bosque, Bogota, Colombia

[6]Faculty of Economics, National Economics University, Hanoi, Viet Nam

[7]International Health Transitions, Canberra, Australia

[8]Health Data Analytics Team, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

[9]Neuroscience Institute, National Research Council (CNR), Padua, Italy

[10]School of Health Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

[11]School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia

[12]School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

[13]School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana-Champaign, USA

[14]Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia

[15]WHO Center for Health Development, Kobe, Japan

关键词: Health service needs and demand;    Health services research;    Adult;    Older adult;    Africa;    Americas;    Asia;    Europe;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12963-023-00308-8

 received in 2022-10-26, accepted in 2023-07-09,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Current measures for monitoring progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) do not adequately account for populations that do not have the same level of access to quality care services and/or financial protection to cover health expenses for when care is accessed. This gap in accounting for unmet health care needs may contribute to underutilization of needed services or widening inequalities. Asking people whether or not their needs for health care have been met, as part of a household survey, is a pragmatic way of capturing this information. This analysis examined responses to self-reported questions about unmet need asked as part of 17 health, social and economic surveys conducted between 2001 and 2019, representing 83 low-, middle- and high-income countries. Noting the large variation in questions and response categories, the results point to low levels (less than 2%) of unmet need reported in adults aged 60+ years in countries like Andorra, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Thailand and Viet Nam to rates of over 50% in Georgia, Haiti, Morocco, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe. While unique, these estimates are likely underestimates, and do not begin to address issues of poor quality of care as a barrier or contributing to unmet need in those who were able to access care. Monitoring progress towards UHC will need to incorporate estimates of unmet need if we are to reach universality and reduce health inequalities in older populations.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2023

【 图 表 】

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