 |
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
|
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Jiajian Chen, PhD, Health Statistics Division, Statistics Canada, 18th floor, R.H.Coats Bldg., Tunney's Pasture, Ottawa, ON K1A 0T6, Canada, 613-951-5059, chenjia@statcan.ca and Feng Hou, PhD, Business and Labour Market Analysis Division, Statistics Canada, 24th floor, R.H. Coats Bldg., Tunney's Pasture, Ottawa, ON K1A 0T6, Canada.
Objective: This study examined factors associated with three major components of unmet health care needs: perceived problems with availability, accessibility, and acceptability of health care service. Data: The analyses were mostly based on 1998/99 cross-sectional National Population Health Survey (NPHS). The response rate for 1998/97 NPHS was 88.2%. The sub-sample used for the analyses consisted of 14,143 respondents aged 18 or older. 1994/95 and 1996/97 NPHS data were also used to present trends in prevalence of self-reported unmet health care needs from 1994/95 to 1998/99. Methods: Separate multiple logistic regression models were used to identify variables that were independently associated with three components of unmet health care needs. The variables included in the analyses were: age, sex, education, marital status, household income, education, employment status, urban/rural residence, Aboriginal status, immigration status, health status, chronic conditions, chronic pain, distress, physician consultations, and attitude towards physicians’ authority and self-care. Because of complex survey design, bootstrap procedure was used to provide unbiased estimates of the standard errors of the regression coefficients. Results: About 1.5 million people, or 7% of those 18 or older, reported having had health needs in the previous 12 months that were not met. This was a significant increase from 4% in 1994/95 and 5% in 1996/97. About half of these instances arose from acceptability problems such as attitudes towards and knowledge about illness and health care. Unmet needs related to service availability problems, such as lengthy waiting times and unavailability of services, were cited by about a third of reported cases. Problems related to accessibility -- that is -- cost or lack of transportation, were mentioned by 13% of reported cases. Unmet health care needs attributed to perceived service availability problems were not significantly associated with household income, education, rural or urban residence, or Aboriginal status and immigration status. However, unmet needs due to accessibility problems were inversely associated with household income. Conclusion: This analysis has not observed evidence of income inequality in unmet health care needs due to the perceived availability of health care services in Canada. However, there was a notable income gradient in accessibility-related unmet health care needs.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Health Care Access, Low-Income
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Statistics Canada
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: employment