Unmet Health Care Needs among Cancer Patients in Baghdad, National Centre for Cancer Diseases in 2018.

Abstract

Background: Identifying the unmet health care needs of cancer patients represents the first step in making health care provided to these patients better. Being able to accurately estimate the extent of these unmet needs and whether there are certain factors affecting their prevalence and distribution can give helpful information to healthcare providers guiding them on how to solve these problems. This study aims to identify the unmet health care needs and find out whether there is a possible association between theses unmet needs and some demographic factors such as age gender and occupation. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 cancer patients in The National Centre for cancer diseases in Baghdad selected by convenient sampling. The data was collected by interviewing patients with a preformed questionnaire (SUNS questionnaire, Access and Continuity Domain). Data was analyzed by using SPSS v20. Results: The highest prevalence of unmet needs was related to having family doctor items, while the lowest was related to having access to the patients’ medical information when planning services for them. 30.34% of a sample of patients were fully satisfied with the National Center for cancer diseases and said that there are no changes needed to be done while 17.39% complained about the unavailability of therapy at the center. Conclusion: This Study reveals that there is a low level of unmet needs among cancer patients indicating a good quality of provided care in the center with highest unmet needs for the family doctor and lowest for accessibility of health team to medical files and information. Keywords: Cancer, Unmet Needs, Health Care