Accessibility of medical services for persons with disabilities: comparison with the general population in Korea.

PURPOSE

This study investigated the accessibility of medical services to people with disabilities (PWD) in Korea in comparison with the general population (GP) and examined factors influencing access to health care.

METHODS

Data from the 2011 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the 2011 National Survey of Disabled People were used. Participants included PWD (n = 5636) and the GP (n = 6646) aged 19 and above.

RESULTS

Of the PWD group, 807 (14.8%) reported difficulty in accessing medical services compared with 284 (4.2%) of the GP group (p < 0.001). In the PWD group, the most frequently reported reasons for not receiving medical services when needed were lack of money (58.8%) and lack of transportation (18.6%). Problems accessing medical services were associated with sex, age, employment status, household income, health insurance type, chronic disease, and disability type and grade.

CONCLUSIONS

PWD experienced more barriers in accessing medical services despite needing services more frequently than did those in the GP group. Compared to barriers faced by the GP, barriers for PWD were environmental rather than personal, which indicates the need for social policies to remove or reduce barriers and improve access to care. Implications for Rehabilitation Health Care Environment People with disabilities are likely to have difficulty in accessing medical services. Barriers are associated with environmental factors (e.g. lack of money or transportation), necessitating policies to reduce them.