A Survey of Unmet Health Needs and the Related Barriers to Access Them

Unmet needs are defined as the difference between services judged necessary to deal appropriately with health problems and services actually received. Unmet needs are considered as simple tools in monitoring the accessibility and the extent of inequity in access and use of health care.

This is a cross-section health survey. The sample consists of 792 households living in Tehran. Data were collected by the WHO (households) questionnaire in 2012، and were analyzed using Logistic Model and STATA12 software.

The outcomes show that economical problems، lack of time، self-treatment، long distance to reach health facilities، deprivation of insurance coverage، and lack of adequate information about the locations of health care centres are all factors affecting patients’ willingness to refer to these centres. The socio-economic factors which can enhance the probability of fulfilment of health care needs were found to be settlement ownership and poverty reduction

Unmet needs can cause detrimental effects، such as worsening health situation and quality of life، increasing the risk of mortality and causing mental and psychosomatic disorders; therefore، policy makers should give high priority to eliminating socio-economic barriers، as lack of insurance coverage، as well as reducing the costs and economic inequalities، and payment systems reform. Key words: Equity in health، Health care accessibility، Unmet needs، Tehran households، Logistic Model