• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2011

This study investigated unmet health care needs and associated factors among patients with hypertension and those with diabetes. Patients were identified by medical professionals. Patients who did not take pharmaceuticals to treat their disease(s) were defined as those with unmet health care needs. Using data from 2005 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 3,635 hypertension patients and 1,431 diabetes patients were analyzed. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to examine factors associated with unmet needs. Overall, 16.6% of hypertension patients, 20.3% of those with diabetes presented unmet needs. Common factors associated unmet needs for both hypertension and diabetes were sex, insurance type, self-reported health status and length of disease. Study findings suggest that hypertension and diabetes should be treated in early stage and further study is needed to examine the reasons for unmet needs to improve patient's status effectively.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2015

Background: The objective of this research is to investigate and provide analysis of the economic participatory change affecting the unmet needs of health care in Korean adults. Methods: We used Korea health panel 4th and 5th data of 10,261 adults. The method of investigation is threefold. First, We identified the regional factors affecting unmet needs of health care. Second, we analyzed the effect of economic participatory change as it affects the unmet needs of health care. Third, we also investigated whether there were discernable differences between the age subgroups. Results: It was determined that influencing factors included sex, education, economic level, and health status. And after the subgroup analysis of age, we found that the economic participatory change was associated with the economical unmet needs of health care especially for those over 40 years of age. Also the population are facing unemployment enduring particular economic hardship in meeting their medical needs. Conclusion: This study finds that there are some policy recommendations for the sake of medical service equality. Medical welfare policy for those 40 years of age and older has been identified as an area that needs improvement. And considering that those 40 years of age and older are facing unemployment enduring particular economic hardship in meeting their medical needs, this study finds a need for government sponsored medical stipends or subsidizing of medical premiums, co-payment, and other fees.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.197-206
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• 2021

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting unmet healthcare needs due to physical accessibility by residential area by utilizing the Korea Community Health Survey (KCHS). Methods: Andersen's medical service behavioral model was applied to analyze the enabling factors, predisposing factors, and needs factors of unmet healthcare needs focusing on residential areas. This study used data from the KCHS (2017-2019, n=440,792). We used multivariate survey logistic regression analysis in order to identify affecting factors. Sub-group analysis was conducted in order to evaluate the effects of residential areas. Results: Some participants (2,621, 0.59%) had experienced unmet healthcare needs due to physical accessibility and 2,047 subjects (78.1%) of them lived in rural areas. Multivariate survey logistic regressions revealed that experience of unmet healthcare needs due to physical accessibility increased when people lived in rural areas (odds ratio [OR], 3.95; 95% confidence interval, 3.46-4.51). Conclusion: This study showed that despite the development of transportation and efforts to alleviate medical inequality, residents in rural areas may still have higher experience of unmet healthcare needs due to physical accessibility compared to the metropolitan city regardless of any other sub-group differences (OR range, 1.90-6.31). This study suggested that government and policymakers should identify the causes of the experience of unmet healthcare needs due to physical accessibility and should develop policies to alleviate those healthcare disparities.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.390-398
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• 2016

Background: This study aims to analyze the impact of levels of health care coverage on the trajectory of self-rated health, comparing the near-poor which tends to be excluded in traditional health care systems with the upper middle class. Methods: The study participants were 3,687 people who sincerely responded questions regarding health care expenditures, unmet medical needs, and self-rated health in the Korea Health Panel data in 2009-2012. Results: The higher health care expenditures and the presence of unmet medical needs were significantly associated with the lower level of self-rated health. However, both factors did not significantly predict the steeper decline in the self-rated health. The results from multiple group analyses showed that health care expenditures and unmet medical needs had greater impact on the near-poor compared to their higher income counterparts. Conclusion: Public health care coverages need to be enhanced as well as reducing health care expenditures and unmet medical needs.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.1-12
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• 2019

Purposes: The purpose of this study, was to identify similar factors between reasons for unscreening and unmet health care needs through prior research, and based on this, we wanted to figure out the relevance between the medical screening and unmet health care needs. Methodology: The analysis was conducted using data from 9,640 adults aged 19 or older who don't have a missing value from 16,277 participants in the 7th, 1st&2nd Year (2016&2017) of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Unmet health care needs were investigated as a self-reported questionnaire of whether medical service was required but not received. And the analysis was performed through the Chi-Square Test and Multi-logistic Regression analysis. Findings: As a result of the analysis, unmet healthcare needs were higher who received only one type of screening comparative to who screened both. and were highest who screened neither. Practical Implications: Unmet health care needs are the center of a vicious cycle, such as morbidity and mortality, which is detrimental to the quality of life, and continues to increase. Therefore, it is necessary to find ways of realizing health care that guarantees the health rights of all citizens by policy guarantee and support for the subjects to recognize the importance of thorough education of screenings rather than only health screening or cancer screening.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.82-85
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• 2019

Unmet healthcare needs are being used as an important indicator of the accessibility of healthcare services worldwide. To examine current status and trends of unmet needs in Korea, we used data from four sources: the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES, 2007-2017); the Community Health Survey (CHS 2008-2017); the Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP 2011-2015); and the Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS 2006-2017). The proportion of individual reporting unmet healthcare needs as of 2017 was 8.8% (KNHANES), 10.6% (CHS), and 12.4% (KHP as of 2015). The proportion of households reporting unmet healthcare needs due to cost was 0.5% (KOWEPS). Annual percentage change was -19.2%, -13.3%, -5.8%, and -13.3% respectively. Low income populations had more unmet healthcare needs than high income populations. However, unlike the last two studies, the main reason for unmet medical reasons was that there was no time regardless of income level.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.95-106
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons and catastrophic health expenditures. Methods: This study used secondary data from the 2014~2015 Korean Health Panel survey. The subjects of this study were 21,495 people aged 20 or older, and of them, there were 16,227 people aged 20 to 64 and 5,268 people aged 65 or older, which were surveyed between 2014 and 2015. The association between unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons and catastrophic health expenditures was analyzed through logistic regression. Results: In 2015, 1.7% of people aged 20~64 years and 7.9% of those aged 65 or older experienced unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons. In the 20~64 age group, people who repeatedly experienced catastrophic health expenditures (=10%,=20%) were less likely to experience unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons than those who did not experience catastrophic health expenditures for two years (OR=0.50, OR=0.41). However, in the 65-or-older group, people who repeatedly experienced catastrophic health expenditures (=20%) were more likely to experience unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons than those who did not experience catastrophic health expenditures for two years (OR=1.68). Conclusion: A greater percentage of the elderly repeatedly faced both catastrophic health expenditures and unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons compared to the non-elderly.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.221-229
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to identify the convergence factors affecting the unmet health needs of the indigent elderly. The data the study is the Korean medical panel of 2011 and the parameters belonging to each factors were selected based on the Anderson model. We analyzed the general characteristics using frequency analysis and the correlations between variables using cross analysis. Finally, logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the factors affecting unmet health needs. The indigent elderly with no education and elementary school graduates were 1.5 times more likely to experience unmet health needs than the poverty elderly with high school graduates. The indigent elderly who does not work for income, who were employers and self-employeds were 1.5 times more likely to experience unmet health care need than unpaid family workers. The indigent elderly with disabilities in activites of daily living were 2.9 time more likely to experience unmet health care needs than the indigent elderly with no disability in activites of daily living. The results of this study confirm that the increase in the economic burden of medical care for the indigent elderly can lead to the unmet health needs.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.237-243
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• 2022

Unmet healthcare is an important indicator to measure accessibility of healthcare services. To examine the latest status of unmet healthcare needs in South Korea, four different data which is composed of nationally representative sample of South Korean population were used; the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES, 2007-2020), the Community Health Survey (CHS, 2008-2020), the Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, 2011-2018), and the Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS, 2006-2020). The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs were 6.4% (KNHANES), 5.4% (CHS), and 12.2% (KHP). Annual percentage change (APC) which identifies trend for the follow-up period was -9.9%, -9.1%, and -5.5%, respectively. The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs due to cost were 1.0% (KNHANES), 0.4% (CHS), 2.2% (KHP), and 0.4% (KOWEPS). The APC was -11.3%, -17.0%, -12.2%, and -21.2%, respectively. Overall, the low-income and the elderly population reported a higher rate of unmet health care needs. Although the overall experience rate of unmet medical care due to cost decreased over the past decade, the disparity between the lowest and highest income groups still remained in 2020. Disparity between income levels and age groups is a challenge to address in healthcare system, and these results suggest the need for adequate health coverage for the low-income and the elderly populations.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.184-194
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• 2019

Background: The extent of coverage rate of the public health insurance is still insufficient to meet healthcare needs. Private health insurance (PHI) plays a role to supplement coverage level of national health insurance in Korea. It is expected that reduce unmet need healthcare. This study was aimed to identify relationship between PHI type and the unmet healthcare need and its associated factors. Methods: Data were obtained from the 2014 Korea Health Panel Survey using nationally representative sample was analyzed. Respondents were 8,667 who were adults over 20 years covered by PHI but have not changed their contract. According to the enrollment form, PHI was classified into three types: fixed-benefit, indemnity, and mixed-type. To identify factors associated with unmet needs, multiple logistic regression conducted using the Andersen model factors, which are predisposing factors, enabling factors, and need factors. Results: Our analysis found that subjects who had PHI with mixed-type were less likely to experience unmet health care needs compared than those who did not have it (odds ratio, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.66-0.98). As a result of analyzing what affected their unmet healthcare needs, the significant factors associated with unmet medical need were gender, marital status, residence in a metropolitan area, low household income, economic activity participation, self-employed insured, physically disabled, low subjective health status, and health-risk factors such as current smoking and drinking. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that having PHI may reduce experience of unmet healthcare needs. Findings unmet healthcare needs factors according to various subjects may be useful in consideration of setting policies for improving accessibility to healthcare in Korea.