Department of Medicine, Kyung Hee University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Center for Digital Health, Medical Science Research Institute, Kyung Hee University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2024 Sep 18;10:e51481. doi: 10.2196/51481.
Although previous studies have investigated trends in unmet health care and dental care needs, most have focused on specific groups, such as patients with chronic conditions and older adults, and have been limited by smaller data sets.
This study aims to investigate the trends and relative risk factors for unmet health care and dental care needs, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these needs.
We assessed unmet health care and dental care needs from 2009 to 2022 using data from the Korea Community Health Survey (KCHS). Our analysis included responses from 2,750,212 individuals. Unmet health care or dental care needs were defined as instances of not receiving medical or dental services deemed necessary by experts or desired by patients.
From 2009 to 2022, the study included 2,700,705 individuals (1,229,671 men, 45.53%; 673,780, 24.95%, aged 19-39 years). Unmet health care needs decreased before the COVID-19 pandemic; however, during the pandemic, there was a noticeable increase (β 0.10, 95% CI 0.09-0.11). Unmet dental care needs declined before the pandemic and continued to decrease during the pandemic (β 0.23, 95% CI 0.22-0.24). Overall, the prevalence of unmet dental care needs was significantly higher than that for unmet health care needs. While the prevalence of unmet health care needs generally decreased over time, the β difference during the pandemic increased compared with prepandemic values.
Our study is the first to analyze national unmet health care and dental care needs in South Korea using nationally representative, long-term, and large-scale data from the KCHS. We found that while unmet health care needs decreased during COVID-19, the decline was slower compared with previous periods. This suggests a need for more targeted interventions to prevent unmet health care and dental care needs.
尽管先前的研究已经调查了未满足的医疗保健和牙科保健需求的趋势，但大多数研究都集中在特定群体上，例如患有慢性病和老年人，并受到较小数据集的限制。
本研究旨在调查未满足的医疗保健和牙科保健需求的趋势和相对风险因素，以及 COVID-19 大流行对这些需求的影响。
我们使用来自韩国社区健康调查（KCHS）的数据，从 2009 年至 2022 年评估了未满足的医疗保健和牙科保健需求。我们的分析包括来自 2750212 个人的回复。未满足的医疗保健或牙科保健需求被定义为未接受专家认为必要或患者期望的医疗或牙科服务的情况。
从 2009 年至 2022 年，该研究包括 2700705 个人（1229671 名男性，占 45.53%；673780 名，占 24.95%，年龄在 19-39 岁之间）。在 COVID-19 大流行之前，未满足的医疗保健需求有所减少；然而，在大流行期间，需求明显增加（β0.10，95%CI0.09-0.11）。在大流行之前，未满足的牙科保健需求下降，并且在大流行期间继续下降（β0.23，95%CI0.22-0.24）。总体而言，未满足的牙科保健需求的患病率明显高于未满足的医疗保健需求。虽然未满足的医疗保健需求随着时间的推移普遍下降，但大流行期间的β差异与大流行前的值相比有所增加。
本研究首次使用来自 KCHS 的具有全国代表性、长期和大规模的全国性数据，分析了韩国的全国性未满足的医疗保健和牙科保健需求。我们发现，尽管在 COVID-19 期间未满足的医疗保健需求有所减少，但与之前的时期相比，减少速度较慢。这表明需要采取更有针对性的干预措施，以预防未满足的医疗保健和牙科保健需求。
