Socioeconomic disparities in unmet need for health care: a common pattern in low- and middle-income countries

This thesis was conducted to investigate the incidence and distribution of unmet needs for health care, to complement traditional approaches of measuring inequity. I asses the level of inequity based on socioeconomic factors such as income and education. Then, I compare these findings using self-reported assessments versus more objective, need-predicted measures of unmet needs. Data from the World Health Organization\'s Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) were used in this analysis, which focused on six low- and middle-income countries: China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russian Federation, and South Africa. The survey included 34124 respondents aged 50 and older. Higher levels of education and income showed an association with lower odds of facing unmet need in all countries. This finding was consistent in all six measures of unmet need. Furthermore, the magnitude of the socioeconomic gradient is often smaller or less significant when measured through the subjective approach, indicating that the poorer and lower-educated tend to underestimate their health needs. Future research should focus on understanding which specific barriers are causing unmet need, to better comprehend what is behind this established inequity, and to motivate policy action.