JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Although previous studies have investigated trends in unmet healthcare and dental care needs, most focused on specific groups, such as patients with chronic conditions and the elderly, with limited data.

Objective:

Thus, we aimed to investigate trends and relative risk factors of unmet healthcare and dental care needs, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these.

Methods:

We assessed unmet healthcare and dental care needs from 2009 to 2022 using data from the Korean Community Health Survey (KCHS). We analyzed data from 2,750,212 individuals who responded to the survey. Unmet health or dental care needs were defined as experiences of not receiving the healthcare or dental care services judged necessary by medical experts or desired by the patients.

Results:

For 2009 to 2022, 2,700,705 individuals were included in this study (1,229,671 [45.5%] men; 19-39 years, 673,780 [24.9%]). Before the COVID-19 pandemic, unmet healthcare needs decreased, but during the pandemic, the increased was noticeable (βdiff, 0.010; 95% CI, 0.009 to 0.011). Unmet dental care needs declined, before the pandemic, also decreased during the pandemic (βdiff, 0.023; 95% CI, 0.022 to 0.024). In particular, the overall prevalence of unmet needs was much higher for dental care than health care. The prevalence of unmet health care needs generally decreased over time, but the β difference during the pandemic increased compared to pre-pandemic values.

Conclusions:

Our study represents the first analysis of national unmet healthcare and dental care needs in South Korea, using nationally representative, long-term, and large-scale data from the KCHS. The study found unmet healthcare needs decreased during COVID-19 but decreased slowly. This study suggests more specific actions to prevent unmet healthcare and dental care needs.