Unmet Health Needs During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objective: This study aimed to identify the unmet health needs of adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, the reasons for these needs, solutions sought and socio-demographic determinants.Methods: The cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 2,074 adult individuals from December 15 to December 31, 2020. Data were collected using Socio-demographic Data Collection Form, Unmet Health Needs Data Collection Form and World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL).Results: The percentage of the participants who stated that they had unmet health needs was 66% and the most unmet needs reported were oral and dental treatment (46.3%), eye health and treatment for vision disorders (22.5%), and early diagnosis and annual health screening (11.4%). The reasons with the most impact on the emergence of these needs were fear of being infected with the virus (44.3%), lack of access to health care (42.7%) and not wanting to cause a burden on the health system. There was a significant difference between the groups with and without unmet health needs in terms of gender, economic status, presence of health insurance, presence of chronic disease, perception of health, and WHOQOL total scores.Conclusion: The findings obtained will benefit policymakers in the rational use of limited resources and making strategic arrangements for needs.

Unmet health-related needs of community-dwelling older adults during COVID-19 lockdown in a diverse urban cohort.

BACKGROUND: Shelter-in-place orders during the COVID-19 pandemic created unmet health-related and access-related needs among older adults. We sought to understand the prevalence of these needs among community-dwelling older adults. METHODS: We performed a retrospective chart review of pandemic-related outreach calls to older adults between March and July 2020 at four urban, primary care clinics: a home-based practice, a safety net adult medicine clinic, an academic geriatrics practice, and a safety net clinic for adults living with HIV. Participants included those 60 or older at three sites, and those 65 or older with a chronic health condition at the fourth. We describe unmet health-related needs (the need for medication refills, medical supplies, or food) and access-related needs (ability to perform a telehealth visit, need for a call back from the primary care provider). We performed bivariate and multivariate analyses to examine the association between unmet needs and demographics, medical conditions, and healthcare utilization. RESULTS: Sixty-two percent of people had at least one unmet need. Twenty-six percent had at least one unmet health-related need; 14.0% needed medication refills, 12.5% needed medical supplies, and 3.0% had food insecurity. Among access-related needs, 33% were not ready for video visits, and 36.4% asked for a return call from their provider. Prevalence of any unmet health-related need was the highest among Asian versus White (36.4% vs. 19.1%) and in the highest versus lowest poverty zip codes (30.8% vs. 18.2%). Those with diabetes and COPD had higher unmet health-related needs than those without, and there was no change in healthcare utilization. CONCLUSIONS: During COVID, we found that disruptions in access to services created unmet needs among older adults, particularly for those who self-identified as Asian. We must foreground the needs of this older population group in the response to future public health crises.

Gender Identity, Disability, and Unmet Healthcare Needs among Disabled People Living in the Community in the United States.

Disabled adults and transgender people in the United States face multiple compounding and marginalizing forces that result in unmet healthcare needs. Yet, gender identity among disabled people has not been explored, especially beyond binary categories of gender. Using cross-sectional survey data, we explored the rates of disability types and the odds of unmet healthcare needs among transgender people with disabilities compared to cisgender people with disabilities. The rates of disability type were similar between transgender and cisgender participants with two significant differences. Fewer transgender participants identified physical or mobility disability as their main disability compared to cisgender participants (12.31%/8 vs. 27.68/581, p < 0.01), and more transgender participants selected developmental disability as their main disability compared to cisgender participants (13.85%/9 vs. 3.67%/77, p < 0.001). After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, the odds of disabled transgender participants reporting an unmet need were higher for every unmet need except for preventative services.

Access to food and health care during the COVID-19 pandemic by disability status in the United States.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people's access to food and health care. People with disabilities may be disproportionately affected by these outcomes due to structural and social barriers. OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS: To examine the relative prevalence of food insufficiency and unmet health care needs among the U.S. residents by vision, hearing, cognition, and mobility disability. METHODS: We used data from the Household Pulse Survey wave conducted from April 14 to April 26, 2021, when questions about functional disability were first included. Participants were asked about difficulty seeing, hearing, remembering or concentrating, and walking or climbing stairs. The outcomes of interest were food insufficiency, delaying needed medical care and not getting needed medical care. Poisson regression models with robust variance adjusted for potential confounders were used to examine the prevalence ratio of each of these outcomes by disability status in separate models for each type of disability. RESULTS: During April 14-26, 2021, 39.5% adults in the U.S. reported cognitive disability, 30.8% reported vision disability, 23.2% reported mobility disability, and 14.9% reported hearing disability. Adults with any type of disability were more likely than those without to experience food insufficiency (range of prevalence rate ratios [PRR]: 1.67-1.96), and delay (range of PRR: 1.48-1.87) or not get (range of PRR: 1.60-2.07) needed medical care. CONCLUSIONS: These disparities suggest there is an urgent need to address the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with disabilities. The prioritization of disability data collection is key in achieving that goal.

Beyond COVID-19: a cross-sectional study in Italy exploring the covid collateral impacts on healthcare services.

With COVID-19, populations are facing unmet health needs due to fear of contagion, lockdown measures and overload of Healthcare services (HCS). The COCOS study aimed to investigate reduced healthcare access among Italian citizens, additionally looking for specific subgroups that will primarily need health services in the next future. A cross-sectional online survey was performed during the Italian lockdown between April and May 2020. Descriptive, univariable and multivariable (logistic regression models) analyses were performed: results are expressed as Odd Ratios and Adjusted Odd Ratios (ORs and AdjORs). Totally, 1,515 questionnaires were collected. Median age was 42 years (IQR 23), 65.6% were females. Around 21.8% declared to suffer from chronic diseases. About 32.4% faced a delay of a scheduled Medical Service (MS) by provider decision, 13.2% refused to access scheduled MS for the fear of contagion, and 6.5% avoided HCS even if having an acute onset issue. Alarmingly, 1.5% avoided Emergency Department when in need and 5.0% took medications without consulting any physician: patients suffering from chronic conditions resulted to be more prone to self-medication (AdjOR [95% CI]: 2.16 [1.16-4.02]). This study demonstrated that indirect effects of COVID-19 are significant. Large groups of population suffered delays and interruptions of medical services, and the most vulnerable were the most affected. Immediate efforts are needed to reduce the backlog that HCSs incurred in.