ArticlePopulation health metrics2023
Prevalence of unmet health care need in older adults in 83 countries: measuring progressing towards universal health coverage in the context of global population ageing.
Article in Population health metrics, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Implementation science in care for older adults across healthcare settings: a scoping review.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2026Pooled it
- The socioeconomic and health system determinants of financial protection indicators: a global systematic review (2008-2023).BMJ global health · 2025Pooled it
- Factors Influencing the Implementation and Adoption of Digital Nursing Technologies: Systematic Umbrella Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Publication Trends, Thematic Clusters and Governance in Ageing-Insurance Research: A Bibliometric and Systematic Review.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingPooled it
- The Nursing Implementation Complexity Tool for Digital Technology Implementation in Nursing: Design Science Research Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Beyond global comparability: why universal health coverage indicators must reflect national contexts.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- What we count, and who gets counted: Population Health Metrics on World Population Day.Population health metrics · 2026Article
- Unmet Medical Needs Among Immigrants in Korea Before and During COVID-19.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Estimating long-term care needs in data-scarce settings: a diagnostic model with evidence from MENA.Population health metrics · 2026Article
- Video-Based Gait Assessment Using Machine Learning to Classify Age and Sex in Low-Resource Settings: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Problems in accessing healthcare among women in India: a district-level change analysis, 2016-2021.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Care Needs of Community-Dwelling Older Adults Living in Poverty and Their Relationship With Other Biopsychosocial Variables: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of advanced nursing · 2026Article
- From family support to smart health devices: addressing subjective community healthcare gaps in aging China.Innovation in aging · 2026Article
- Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment: Addressing Unmet Healthcare Needs in Older Adults.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Quantifying unmet secondary healthcare need in New Zealand: a multi-year population study using administrative data.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Unmet healthcare needs, out-of-pocket payments and catastrophic health expenditures among hypertensive adults in Bangladesh.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on unmet needs for healthcare in Peru: an interrupted time series analysis.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Unmet Medication Needs and the Association with Mortality in Older Adults: Equality-Oriented Monitoring toward Universal Health Coverage.Aging and disease · 2024Article
- Counting older women: Measuring the health and wellbeing of older women in LMICs.Cell reports. Medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 12 institutions in 9 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Current measures for monitoring progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) do not adequately account for populations that do not have the same level of access to quality care services and/or financial protection to cover health expenses for when care is accessed. This gap in accounting for unmet health care needs may contribute to underutilization of needed services or widening inequalities. Asking people whether or not their needs for health care have been met, as part of a household survey, is a pragmatic way of capturing this information. This analysis examined responses to self-reported questions about unmet need asked as part of 17 health, social and economic surveys conducted between 2001 and 2019, representing 83 low-, middle- and high-income countries. Noting the large variation in questions and response categories, the results point to low levels (less than 2%) of unmet need reported in adults aged 60+ years in countries like Andorra, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Thailand and Viet Nam to rates of over 50% in Georgia, Haiti, Morocco, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe. While unique, these estimates are likely underestimates, and do not begin to address issues of poor quality of care as a barrier or contributing to unmet need in those who were able to access care. Monitoring progress towards UHC will need to incorporate estimates of unmet need if we are to reach universality and reduce health inequalities in older populations.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.