Access Disparity and Health Inequality of the Elderly: Unmet Needs and Delayed Healthcare

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate healthcare access disparity that will cause delayed and unmet healthcare needs for the elderly, and to examine health inequality and healthcare cost burden for the elderly. To produce clear policy applications, this study adapts a modified PRECEDE-PROCEED model for framing theoretical and experimental approaches. Data were collected from a large collection of the Community Tracking Study Household Survey 2003–2004 of the USA. Reliability and construct validity are examined for internal consistency and estimation of disparity and inequality are analyzed by using probit/ols regressions. The results show that predisposing factors (e.g., attitude, beliefs, and perception by socio-demographic differences) are negatively associated with delayed healthcare. A 10% increase in enabling factors (e.g., availability of health insurance coverage, and usual sources of healthcare providers) are significantly associated with a 1% increase in healthcare financing factors. In addition, information through a socio-economic network and support system has a 5% impact on an access disparity. Income, health status, and health inequality are exogenously determined. Designing and implementing easy healthcare accessibility (healthcare system) and healthcare financing methods, and developing a socio-economic support network (including public health information) are essential in reducing delayed healthcare and health inequality.

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Access to care, health status, and health disparities in the United States and Canada: results of a cross-national population-based survey.

Karen Lasser, David Himmelstein, Steffie Woolhandler (2006)

We compared health status, access to care, and utilization of medical services in the United States and Canada and compared disparities according to race, income, and immigrant status. We analyzed population-based data on 3505 Canadian and 5183 US adults from the Joint Canada/US Survey of Health. Controlling for gender, age, income, race, and immigrant status, we used logistic regression to analyze country as a predictor of access to care, quality of care, and satisfaction with care and as a predictor of disparities in these measures. In multivariate analyses, US respondents (compared with Canadians) were less likely to have a regular doctor, more likely to have unmet health needs, and more likely to forgo needed medicines. Disparities on the basis of race, income, and immigrant status were present in both countries but were more extreme in the United States. United States residents are less able to access care than are Canadians. Universal coverage appears to reduce most disparities in access to care.

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Cultural competence: a systematic review of health care provider educational interventions.

Aysegul Gozu, Mary Beach, Ana Palacio … (2005)

We sought to synthesize the findings of studies evaluating interventions to improve the cultural competence of health professionals. This was a systematic literature review and analysis. We performed electronic and hand searches from 1980 through June 2003 to identify studies that evaluated interventions designed to improve the cultural competence of health professionals. We abstracted and synthesized data from studies that had both a before- and an after-intervention evaluation or had a control group for comparison and graded the strength of the evidence as excellent, good, fair, or poor using predetermined criteria. We sought evidence of the effectiveness and costs of cultural competence training of health professionals. Thirty-four studies were included in our review. There is excellent evidence that cultural competence training improves the knowledge of health professionals (17 of 19 studies demonstrated a beneficial effect), and good evidence that cultural competence training improves the attitudes and skills of health professionals (21 of 25 studies evaluating attitudes demonstrated a beneficial effect and 14 of 14 studies evaluating skills demonstrated a beneficial effect). There is good evidence that cultural competence training impacts patient satisfaction (3 of 3 studies demonstrated a beneficial effect), poor evidence that cultural competence training impacts patient adherence (although the one study designed to do this demonstrated a beneficial effect), and no studies that have evaluated patient health status outcomes. There is poor evidence to determine the costs of cultural competence training (5 studies included incomplete estimates of costs). Cultural competence training shows promise as a strategy for improving the knowledge, attitudes, and skills of health professionals. However, evidence that it improves patient adherence to therapy, health outcomes, and equity of services across racial and ethnic groups is lacking. Future research should focus on these outcomes and should determine which teaching methods and content are most effective.

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Inequalities in health care use and expenditures: empirical data from eight developing countries and countries in transition.

M. Mäkinen, H. Waters, M. Rauch … (2000)

This paper summarizes eight country studies of inequality in the health sector. The analyses use household data to examine the distribution of service use and health expenditures. Each study divides the population into "income" quintiles, estimated using consumption expenditures. The studies measure inequality in the use of and spending on health services. Richer groups are found to have a higher probability of obtaining care when sick, to be more likely to be seen by a doctor, and to have a higher probability of receiving medicines when they are ill, than the poorer groups. The richer also spend more in absolute terms on care. In several instances there are unexpected findings. There is no consistent pattern in the use of private providers. Richer households do not devote a consistently higher percentage of their consumption expenditures to health care. The analyses indicate that intuition concerning inequalities could result in misguided decisions. It would thus be worthwhile to measure inequality to inform policy-making. Additional research could be performed using a common methodology for the collection of data and applying more sophisticated analytical techniques. These analyses could be used to measure the impact of health policy changes on inequality.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Ulf-G. Gerdtham: Role: Academic Editor

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Int J Environ Res Public Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Int J Environ Res Public Health

Journal ID (publisher-id): ijerph

Title: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Publisher: MDPI

ISSN (Print): 1661-7827

ISSN (Electronic): 1660-4601

Publication date (Electronic): 03 February 2015

Publication date (Print): February 2015

Volume: 12

Issue: 2

Pages: 1745-1772

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Economics, Center for Children and Childhood Studies, Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, 311 North 5th Street, Camden, NJ 08102, USA

[2 ]Department of Epidemiology & Community Health, School of Health Sciences & Practice, New York Medical College, 95 Grasslands Rd., Valhalla, NY 10595, USA; E-Mail: ChiaChing_Chen@ 123456nymc.edu

[3 ]Department of Social Science, Center for Gerontology and Social Science, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, 35 Gengo, Morioka cho, Obu-shi, Aichi-ken, 474-8511 Japan; E-Mail: cmurata@ 123456ncgg.go.jp

[4 ]Department of Civil Environmental Engineering, Iwate University, 4-3-5, Ueda, Morioka-shi, Iwate-ken, 020-8551 Japan; E-Mail: hirai181kan@ 123456gmail.com

[5 ]Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 1-20-1 Handayama Higashiku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka-ken, 431-3192 Japan; E-Mail: ojima@ 123456hama-med.ac.jp

[6 ]Center for Preventive Medical Sciences, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuou-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba-ken, 260-8670 Japan; E-Mail: kkondo@ 123456chiba-u.jp

[7 ]Department of Public Policy and Administration, Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, 311 North 5th Street, Camden, NJ 08102, USA; E-Mail: hajoseph@ 123456scarletmail.rutgers.edu

Author notes

[†]

These authors contributed equally to this work.

[* ]Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: tyamada@ 123456crab.rutgers.edu ; Tel.: +1-856-225-6025.

Article

Publisher ID: ijerph-12-01745

DOI: 10.3390/ijerph120201745

PMC ID: 4344691

PubMed ID: 25654774

SO-VID: 7ea3fd85-f9c3-4f4d-a526-075fdb1c28b8

License:

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

History

Date received : 08 June 2013

Date accepted : 21 January 2015

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Access Disparity and Health Inequality of the Elderly: Unmet Needs and Delayed Healthcare

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Abstract

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Climate Change and Human Health

Most cited references 57

Access to care, health status, and health disparities in the United States and Canada: results of a cross-national population-based survey.

Cultural competence: a systematic review of health care provider educational interventions.

Inequalities in health care use and expenditures: empirical data from eight developing countries and countries in transition.

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Cited by 35

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