Abstract
Unmet medical needs refer to the state where a patient’s medical care or service is insufficient, inadequate, or lacking. Numerous factors influence unmet medical needs. We used a multi-pronged approach to explore the factors influencing unmet medical needs in the Korean health care system according to Anderson’s Behavioral Model of Health Services Use. To this end, we used data from 11,378 adults over 19 years old in the 2016 Korea Health Panel Survey and performed multiple logistic regression analyses. The odds of experiencing unmet medical needs were significantly greater among older participants (odds ratio (OR) = 2.51, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.78–3.56); low-income participants (OR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.14–1.75); non-workers (OR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.06–1.46); those who had received non-covered treatment (OR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.08–1.42); those who did not regularly exercise (OR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.02–1.48); and those experiencing pain (OR = 2.29, 95% CI = 1.97–2.66), worse self-rated health status (OR = 2.29, 95% CI = 1.89–2.79), and severe depression (OR = 2.46, 95% CI = 1.39–4.35). About one in ten Korean citizens (11.60%) have unmet medical service needs. Policies that strengthen coverage for physically and economically vulnerable groups are needed.
Highlights
Health care should be of a certain quality and delivered in an acceptable and cost-effective manner to everyone in a society [1]
When looking at the costs used in Western medicine and traditional Korean medicine, we found that the total treatment costs, health insurance costs, out-of-pocket costs, and non-covered treatment costs were higher among those who had experienced unmet medical needs in both types
The results indicate that 11.6% of Korean adults had experienced unmet medical needs, which is slightly lower than the 14.5% found in a previous study [27]
Summary
Health care should be of a certain quality and delivered in an acceptable and cost-effective manner to everyone in a society [1]. People have varied health care demands, which can broadly be classified into medical needs and medical wants, depending on the decision maker [2]. Needs are based on expert judgments, while wants originate in the patients themselves. Reeves et al (2015) defined unmet need as being unable to obtain care when people believed it to be medically necessary [4]. Among the 27 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), about 2.5% of patients have reported unmet medical needs [5]. The reasons provided for these unmet medical needs varied, and included financial reasons (Greece, Italy, Poland, and Portugal), wait time (Poland, Finland, and Estonia), and difficulty in transportation (Norway). The United Kingdom showed low inequality between the upper and lower 50% of the population in terms of income level, whereas the United States exhibited the largest inequality between income levels, with
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
