• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.117-129
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of demographic characteristics and oral health status on unmet dental needs among preschool children and to provide a basis for improvement of the dental care equality and accessibility using data from the $6^{th}$ National Health and Nutrition Survey. Methods: This study was performed using data collected from the $6^{th}$ National Health and Nutrition Survey. The subjects were 1,472 out of 22,940 people, who participated in the survey and under went oral examination. IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 20.0) was used for statistical analyses based on the complex sampling design. Frequency analysis was performed to determine the distribution of unmet dental needs according to the characteristics of the subjects. The Rao-Scott ${\chi}^2$ test was performed to examine the relationship of unmet dental needs with general characteristics and health- and oral health-related variables. Relevant factors were determined using binary logistic regression analysis. Results: The factors that had statistically significant relations with unmet dental needs included age, medical insurance, household income, limited physical activity, history of dental caries in deciduous teeth, and subjective health status. Logistic regression analysis of complex samples was conducted to determine factors related to unmet dental needs. The results of analysis showed that limited physical activity and history of dental caries in deciduous teeth were related to unmet dental needs. Conclusions: The results show the factors affecting, and the reasons for, the unmet dental needs of preschool children. Future studies are needed to develop national projects and oral health education reforms to address inequalities in preschool children's dental care.

• 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.

• Journal of Society of Occupational Therapy for the Aged and Dementia
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.1-11
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• 2018

Objective : The aim of this study was to compare the sociodemographic characteristics, depression, quality of life, and unmet medical need in elders with and without limitation of activity by aging or dementia. Method : The data were used for raw data of seventh national health and nutrition examination survey (2016). We compared sociodemographic characteristics, depression, quality of life, and unmet medical needs between elders with limitation of activity by aging or dementia (n = 32) and elders without limitation of activity (n = 1201). Result : Elders with limitation of activity were significantly older than elders without limitation of activity (p<.001), income was lower (p<.05) and married status had more bereavement (p<.001). The elders with limitation of activity had higher depression (p<.001) and lower quality of life (p<.001) than elders without limitation of activity. Unmet medical need was greater than elders without limitation of activity (p<.001). Conclusion : Elders with limitation of activity showed that they did not receive enough medical services than elders without limitation of activity. These results suggest that the welfare system for the health care of population with aging or dementia needs to be improved.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.31-41
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• 2018

Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate whether employment status is associated with the experience of unmet care needs. Methods: This study utilized the Korea Health Panel data from 2012 to 2016. A total of 4,083 workers were selected as baseline subjects in 2012 and were followed for four years. This study used the GLIMMIX procedure under the marginal model while adjusting for covariates. Results: A total of 12.4% of 4,083 people said they had failed at least once to have a treatment or checkup despite the needs. Those more likely to experience unmet care needs were women and people of lower income level, with worse health conditions and chronic disease. Precarious workers, the self-employed, and the unemployed were more likely to experience unmet care needs caused by economic burden than permanent workers (Odds Ratio: 2.14, 2.07, 2.74, respectively). Conclusions: This disparity means that precarious workers and the unemployed are more likely to face barriers in obtaining needed health services. Given their insecure employment status, meeting their needs for health care is an important consideration.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.485-492
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• 2023

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to identify factors related to unmet dental care needs among Korean youth, enhance the utilization of dental services by adolescents, furnish basic data for youth-oriented dental projects, and improve access to medical care. Methods: The analysis utilized combined data from the basic and oral databases from the 6th (2013-2015), 7th (2016-2018), and 1st year of the 8th (2019) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Results: The factors influencing unmet dental care needs were gender, age, household income level, and health insurance. Statistically significant results were observed in relation to the type of dental clinic, recent visits to a dental hospital, experiences of toothache within the past year, subjective oral health status, occurrences of permanent dental caries, and engagement in orthodontic treatment. Conclusions: When formulating future national policies and projects, it is imperative to consider the factors and underlying reasons for the unmet dental care needs of adolescents. It is also necessary to establish oral health policies and institutional measures tailored to the dental care of adolescents.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.360-370
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• 2020

In order to understand the factors related to the unmet dental needs, analysis was performed using the data of community health survey data. Targeting population of 214,861 aged 25 and over demographic factors, socioeconomic factors, social support, social environmental factors, social and physical environmental factors, and factors related to necessary unmet dental needs visit it was confirmed. The lower the age, the higher the income level, the lower the education level, the less contact with relatives and friends, the less likely they are to participate in relatives and leisure activities, dissatisfied with sociophysical environment(safety level, natural environment, living environment, public transportation, medical services) the higher unmet dental needs. It was confirmed that not only demographic and socioeconomic factors but also social support, social environmental factors, social and physical environmental factors had a statistically significant impact on the need of unmet dental needs. Future research that includes policy factors as social determinants of health will be needed as a way to increase the unmet dental needs.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.809-817
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• 2020

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the relationship between socioeconomic factors and the unmet dental care needs of the living alone and living with family elderly groups to confirm the differences in their influence. Methods: Data from the Korea Health Panel Study of 2016 were used to analyze a total of 4,987 individuals: 4,008 in living with family group and 979 in living alone group. Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed using SPSS Version 22 (p<0.05). Results: We observed that 16.5% and 28.3% of the participants from the living with family and living alone groups had unmet dental care needs, respectively, indicating that the living alone group had more unmet dental care needs. Income level, residential area, and healthcare security were significant factors related to the living with family group. In contrast, medical aid for healthcare security was a significant factor related to the living alone group (p<0.05). Conclusions: The results confirmed that socioeconomic factors that affect unmet dental care vary according to the living situation. Therefore, the government should identify the number of elderly individuals living alone, which is increasing annually. These individuals are vulnerable in almost all aspects, and the government should establish and implement appropriate oral healthcare policies to support them.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.44-54
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• 2017

Background: Mental health issues such as stress and depression have been regarded as major social problems in Korea. We investigated the relationship between stress and depression with unmet medical needs (UMN). Methods: Using the nationwide database of 2010 Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (K-NHANES), subjects aged 19 years or above were selected (n=6,055). In the K-NHANES questionnaire, subjects were asked about their UMN experience, severity of stress, and perceived depression lasting at least 2 weeks over the past year. The effects of stress and depression on UMN were analyzed in 4 models established by adding predisposing, enabling and need factors in a step-wise fashion. The risks for UMN were also assessed according to the causes of UMN. Results: Individuals who felt stress 'very often' (odds ratio (OR) 3.28, 95% CI=2.23-4.86) and 'often' (OR 2.53, 95% CI=1.93-3.31) and who experienced depression (OR 1.68, 95% CI=1.35-2.10) reported significantly elevated UMN rates, and these effects were substantial especially for the individuals who had UMN due to economic constraint. Females, lower education level, lower income, unemployed status, and negative perceptions about health status were found to be additional risk factors for UMN. Conclusion: Our results confirmed the risks of stress and depression on UMN. It is strongly advisable to create initiatives to improve mental health, particularly stress and depression, and to fulfill individuals' medical utilization needs.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.306-313
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• 2019

This study endeavors to provide basic data for healthcare policy development by identifying factors that influence the unmet healthcare needs of the elderly with chronic diseases. The study utilized data from the 2017 Korean National Survey on the Elderly, and analyzed 9,117 elders afflicted with more than 1 chronic disease. We determined that 851 (9.3%) elders experienced unmet healthcare needs from hospital & clinical treatment, and 1,469 (16.1%) elders experienced unmet dental treatment. 'Economic difficulty' was the most common reason expressed by 425 (49.9%) elders for unmet healthcare needs from hospital and clinical treatment, and by 1,066 (72.6%) elders for dental treatment. Furthermore, unmet healthcare needs in hospital and clinical treatment were affected by various factors, including spouse, education, self-rated health status and exercise, whereas unmet healthcare needs in dental treatment were affected by factors such as spouse, education, medical aids, self-rated health status, smoking, and exercise. Based on the research results achieved, we propose a necessity to establish healthcare policies that consider the influencing factors, and help resolve the unmet healthcare needs of the elderly with chronic diseases.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.163-169
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• 2016

Purpose: The unmet medical service needs of caregivers critically influence their caring for terminal cancer patients, but not much research has been done in this regard. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the association between caregivers' characteristics and their unmet medical service needs. Methods: The survey was conducted with 109 family caregivers of terminal cancer patients admitted to four hospice units. The data were collected from March 2014 through December 2014 using a structured questionnaire. The unmet medical service needs were measured using 14 items which were adopted and modified by authors. Results: Seven areas of unmet medical service needs were shown to be significant. A well-educated group showed stronger needs for counsel about cancer screening and complementary-alternative medicine and health supplement food. A never-smoked group was identified with less need for sexual dysfunction counsel. Counsel about family and personal relations was more necessary for current drinkers and current workers, and less necessary for the married. Insurance counsel was more needed for a no-religion group. Occupation counsel was less necessary for healthy patients. Financial support was less necessary for the married group. Conclusion: Based on the results, it is highly recommended to further investigate the unmet medical service needs of family caregivers for terminal cancer patients and causes of the unmet needs.