• 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.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Oral Health
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.152-158
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• 2018

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate effective predictive factors of the persistence of unmet dental care needs. Methods: Data were obtained from the Korea Health Panel studies of 2011 and 2015, and 4,406 subjects, aged 18 years or older, were included in this study. Of these subjects, those who persistently experienced unmet dental care needs over the three-year period were identified. Panel logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify socio-demographic and health-related factors associated with the persistence of unmet dental care needs in two groups, those aged between 18-64 years and over 65 years. Results: Approximately 12% of subjects showed a persistence in unmet dental care needs. Marital status, education level, household income, type of health insurance, and self-rated health status all significantly correlated with the persistence of unmet dental care needs in both age groups. Conclusions: Efforts should be made to identify factors related to the persistence of unmet dental care needs in order to improve patient accessibility to dental care services.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.120-125
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• 2020

Unmet healthcare needs lead to increased disease severity, increased likelihood of complications, and worse disease prognosis. To examine the latest status of unmet healthcare needs in South Korea, the four different data configured with nationally representative sample of South Korean population were used: the Korea Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNAHANES, 2007-2018), the Community Health Survey (CHS, 2008-2018), the Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, 2011-2016), and the Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS, 2006-2018). The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs were 7.8% (KNHANES, 2018), 8.8% (CHS), and 10.8% (KHP, 2016). Annual percentage change which characterizes trend for the follow-up period was -9.1%, -3.2%, and -6.8%, respectively. The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs due to cost were 1.2% (KNAHANES, 2018), 1.2% (CHS, 2018), 2.5% (KHP, 2016), and 0.5% (KOWEPS, 2018). Annual percentage change which characterizes trend for the follow-up period was -10.3%, -12.0%, -11.3%, and -18.8, respectively. The low-income population and the elderly population were vulnerable groups reporting the highest rate of unmet health care needs. The rate of unmet healthcare needs has been declining since the past decade, still, the disparity between different income groups and age groups suggests that there are many challenges to address.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Oral Health
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.167-174
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• 2018

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the accessibility of dental care services among individuals with precarious employment in South Korea. Methods: We used the $9^{th}$ wave of the Korean Health Panel data (2015) and included 7,736 wage and non-wage earners in our study. We determined precariousness in the labor market as a combination of employment relationship and job income, and categorized individuals based on this into the following four groups: Group A comprising those who report job and income security, Group B comprising those who experience job insecurity alone, Group C comprising those who report a stable job but low income, and Group D comprising those who experience both job and income insecurity. Accessibility to dental care services was determined by experience of unmet dental care needs and unmet dental care needs caused primarily by financial burden. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess the effect of precarious work on access to dental care services. Results: Individuals with job insecurity (Group B; OR=1.445; 95% CI=1.22-1.70) and both job and income insecurity (Group D; OR=1.899; 95% CI=1.61-2.24) were more likely to have unmet needs than the comparison group. Both groups B and D were also 2.048 (95% CI=1.57-2.66) times and 4.435 (95% CI =3.46-5.68) times more likely, respectively, to have unmet dental care needs caused by financial burden. Education status, health insurance, and health status were all also effective factors influencing unmet dental care needs. Conclusions: Unstable employment and low income resulted in diminished access to dental care services. Therefore, governments should consider health policy solutions to reduce barriers preventing individuals with employment and income instability from accessing adequate dental care.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.389-399
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• 2023

Background: The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors affecting the unmet healthcare needs of older people with chronic diseases in Korea and provide a basic research report to strengthen their access to medical care. Methods: In the 2020 older people survey data, 8,182 older people aged 65 or older who were diagnosed with one or more chronic diseases were the final subjects of the study. According to Andersen's behavioral model used in unmet healthcare needs, independent variables were composed of predisposing factors, possible factors, and necessary factors, and whether or not unmet healthcare needs was set as dependent variable. Results: Of the older people with chronic diseases, 1.6% experienced unmet healthcare needs, of which 55.9% experienced unmet healthcare needs for reasons related to economic burden, 31.6% physical constraints, and 12.5% time constraints. As a result of the analysis, older people with chronic diseases were more likely to experience unmet healthcare needs if they were relatively low in age, low in education level, no spouse, low in household income, poor subjective health, complex chronic diseases, and functional restrictions. However, by major reasons for experiencing unmet healthcare needs, living in rural areas were more likely to experience unmet healthcare needs due to physical constraints, and those who participated in economic activities and who had were more likely to experience unmet healthcare needs due to time burden. These results were not derived when only unmet healthcare needs was set as the dependent variable. Conclusion: This study emphasizes the need for an approach by cause of unmet medical occurrence by suggesting that there are differences in influencing factors by reason for experiencing unmet healthcare needs.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.62-72
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• 2023

Based on the basic ideology of health care, this study realized the seriousness of annual unmet medical need and conducted a study to confirm the relationship between the subjective perception of regional healthcare environment and unmet medical needs. The independent variable was classified into attitude 'satisfaction' and 'unsatisfaction' toward regional healthcare, and the dependent variable was classified as whether unmet medical needs occurred annually. Based on previous studies, the control variables were selected as demographic and socioeconomic characteristics that can affect the occurrence of unmet medical care annually and characteristics related to health behavior. Descriptive statistics were conducted for each variable on the extracted sample, and multivariate survey logistic regression analysis was conducted to confirm the association between variables. As a result, more unmet medical needs occurred annually than those who were satisfied with the medical services in the area where they lived. In addition, more unmet medical need occurred annually in "unsatisfied" households compared to households "satisfied" with local medical services. In residential areas, women live in "metropolis" and "rural areas" compared to "urban," women live in men, lower education levels, and poor subjective health levels, and less satisfied with local medical services. As such, the impact of environmental factors in the community on the use of health and medical services is one of the major areas of interest in the field of health science, such as health policy and social dynamics. Therefore, hospitals in each region need to make efforts in terms of hospital management to increase the overall satisfaction of medical services in the region by continuously monitoring the attitude of residents to achieve universal health security, and policymakers should also be interested and propose new policies.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.107-113
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• 2023

Unmet healthcare is an important indicator for measuring accessibility of healthcare services. We analyzed the following four data from a nationally representative sample of South Korean population: Korea Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES, 2007-2021), Community Health Survey (CHS, 2008-2021), Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, 2011-2019), and Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS, 2006-2021). The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs were 6.0% (KNHANES), 5.1% (CHS), and 13.1% (KHP). Annual percentage change (APC) which identifies trend for the follow-up period was -9.4%, -9.4%, and -5.3%, respectively. The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs due to cost were 1.2% (KNAHANES), 0.5% (CHS), 2.7% (KHP), and 0.4% (KOWEPS). The APC was -10.4%, -16.1%, -11.5%, and -19.1%, respectively. Compared to the previous year, the rate of unmet healthcare needs decreased slightly, but the rate of unmet health care needs due to cost tended to increase. Overall, higher rates of unmet healthcare needs were reported in the low-income and the elderly population. Although it was confirmed through the APC that the rate of unmet healthcare experience has decreased over the past decade, it can be seen that there is still a disparity by income level and age. These results suggest the need for an appropriate health benefit coverage policy for the low-income and the elderly.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.225-231
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• 2021

Unmet healthcare is an important indicator to measure accessibility of healthcare services. To examine the latest status of unmet healthcare needs in South Korea, the four different data which is composed of nationally representative sample of South Korean population were used; the Korea Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNAHANES, 2007-2019), the Community Health Survey (CHS, 2008-2019), the Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, 2011-2017), and the Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS, 2006-2019). The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs were 5.8% (KNHANES), 5.3% (CHS), and 11.6% (KHP). Annual percentage change (APC) which identifies trend for the follow-up period was -9.5%, -8.0%, and -6.5%, respectively. The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs due to cost were 1.1% (KNAHANES), 0.7% (CHS), 2.4% (KHP), and 0.4% (KOWEPS). The APC was -10.5%, -14.2%, -12.2%, and -19.6%, respectively. Compared to last year, the rate of unmet healthcare needs has declined in general. However, the low-income and the elderly population were reporting the highest rate of unmet health care needs, and the disparity between lowest and highest groups were remained. These results suggest that adequate benefit coverage is needed for low-income and elderly population.

• 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.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.41-53
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• 2018

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify the factors affecting on unmet healthcare needs of married immigrant women, especially who are working in South Korea. Methods: It is designed as a cross-sectional descriptive study. We analyzed data from 8,142 working married immigrant women to the 'National Survey of Multicultural Families 2015.' Based on Andersen's health behavior model, logistic regression was conducted to determine the predictors of unmet healthcare need. Results: The prevalence of unmet healthcare needs among the subjects was 11.6%. In multivariate analysis, significant predictors of unmet needs included existence of preschooler, country of origin, period of residence in predisposing factors, monthly household income, helpful social relationship, social discrimination, Korean proficiency, working hour per week in enabling factors, and self-rated health, experience of grief or desperation in need factors. Conclusion: The association between labor-related factors and unmet healthcare needs of marriage immigrant women currently working was found from nationally representative sample. Support policies for immigrant women working more than legally defined hours and having preschooler should be supplemented to reduce unmet healthcare needs. In addition, eradicating discrimination in workplace, enlarging social relationship, and developing culturally competent nursing services tailored to health problems caused by labor are needed.