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298912
Sense of community network and unmet health care needs among adults in Ontario, Canada: A secondary data analysis
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Philip Baiden
,
Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Wendy den Dunnen
,
School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Godwin Arku, Dr.
,
Department of Geography, The University of Western Ontario, London,, ON, Canada
Paul Mkandawire
,
The Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Although the Canada Health Act seeks to facilitate reasonable access to health care services without financial or other barriers for Canadians, studies have shown that some Canadians still do not receive the health care service they require. Studies have examined how individual and structural risk factors affect unmet health care needs, but few have examined how community network influence unmet health care needs. This study extends past research by examining the extent to which having a sense of community network influence the likelihood of having unmet health care needs. Data for this study were obtained from the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). A subsample of 16,502 adult respondents from the province of Ontario aged 30 and over was analyzed using binary logistic regression. Of the sample examined, 10.3% reported having unmet health care needs. Respondents with weak sense of community network were 1.44 times more likely to report having unmet health care needs when compare to their counterparts with strong sense of community network (AOR=1.44,
p< .001, 95% C.I.=1.27-1.64). Other factors associated with unmet health care needs includes: younger age, being a female, not having a regular medical doctor, poor physical health, poor mental health, difficulty in carrying out instrumental activities of daily living, and having chronic disease. Findings of this study underscore the role of community network in facilitating access to health care utilization particularly for seniors who may have difficulty in scheduling and attending medical appointments. The paper discusses the results and implications for public health policy.
Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and prevention
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health
Learning Objectives:
Assess the prevalence and the factors that influence unmet health care needs among adults in Ontario, Canada.
Identify the extent to which having a sense of community network influence the likelihood of having unmet health care needs.
Keyword(s): Health Care Access, Chronic Disease Management and Care
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Philip Baiden, M.A. is currently a PhD student at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. My areas of research interest include health service utilization, substance abuse/prescription medication misuse, reliability and validity analysis, quantitative research methodology and statistical analysis. I have published in the areas of substance abuse, prescription medication misuse and readmission among children/youth with mental health needs.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
