IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0256222.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Association between the severity of new-onset depression and unmet healthcare needs of South Korean adults

Author

Listed:
  • Su Yeon Kim
  • Wonjeong Jeong
  • Eun-Cheol Park
  • Sohee Park
  • Sung-In Jang

Abstract

Objectives: Identifying whether the demand for medical services is catered to is an important issue. Given that depression is a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease, it could affect the use of healthcare. This study aims to examine the association between the severity of new-onset depression and unmet healthcare needs among South Korean adults. Methods: Data from 15,588 participants, derived from the 2014, 2016, and 2018 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, were examined. Only individuals who were not diagnosed with depression was included to exclude those who visited hospitals to treat depression or were experiencing unmet healthcare needs due to depression. Depression was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and unmet healthcare needs acted as the dependent variable. A multiple/multinomial logistic regression analysis was built to analyze the association between the variables. Results: Individuals with severe depression had a higher risk of having unmet healthcare needs compared to those without (men: adjusted OR = 2.05, 95% CI = 1.40–3.00; women: adjusted OR = 2.20, 95% CI = 1.72–2.82). White-collar men with severe depression also had a higher risk of having unmet healthcare needs (adjusted OR = 9.72, 95% CI = 4.73–20.00). Individuals with severe depression had a higher risk of having unmet healthcare needs due to economic hardship than those without depression (men: adjusted OR = 3.01, 95% CI = 1.76–5.14, women: adjusted OR = 2.93, 95% CI = 1.96–4.38). Conclusions: This study identified a significant relationship between the severity of new-onset depression and the risk of having unmet healthcare needs among South Korean adults. Our study suggests that having severe depression contributed to a higher risk of unmet healthcare needs. Proper care to manage depression can be promoted through future intervention programs that alleviate the risk of having unmet healthcare needs.

Suggested Citation

  • Su Yeon Kim & Wonjeong Jeong & Eun-Cheol Park & Sohee Park & Sung-In Jang, 2021. "Association between the severity of new-onset depression and unmet healthcare needs of South Korean adults," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(8), pages 1-12, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0256222
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256222
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0256222
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0256222&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0256222?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0256222. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.